Re: Graphical Installer - Call for Testing.

[dian_cecht]

On Wed, Jan 04, 2017 at 08:59:28AM +0100, John Darrington wrote:
> This branch provides a curses based graphical interface to the disk
> images used for installing GuixSD. It is intended to allow users
> unfamiliar with bash and other aspects of unix-like operating systems
> to easily install GuixSD.   This means, it should allow you to install
> GuixSD on a bare PC, without ever touching a shell (whilst still
> providing that option for those who want it).
> 
> <snipped>
> 
> Please report coding and usability issues.

I just wanted to say I hope this isn't going to be the only install option in
the future. While I haven't tested this patch, I do want to say that I'd rather
this be an optional/alternative install method while leaving people a choice of
using the old, tried-and-true shell. I've seen too many installers that force a
GUI on the user and, in the end, removed some very valuable options from the
user. The big example that comes to mind for me is Ubuntu the last time I tried
to install it and found that disk encryption was only available with AES-256,
which I frankly don't trust. At least with plaintext config files (that are
reasonably powerful, which Guix's seem to be), some knowledge of the
command-line tools we have, and some planning the options for installation are
nearly endless.

I'd also like to state that I hope this installer will make sure the user has
plenty of options available at each stage of the process and won't make the
aforementioned mistake of assuming the end user's needs (unless there is some
technical reason that the distro simply can not do something, in which case I'd
hope the techinal limitation will be fixed instead of setting it in stone by
removing it entirely from the GUI installer).