Linked by Paul Hankes Drielsma on Tue 15th Apr 2003 06:40 UTC
I can't take anymore comments like "Debian/Gentoo/OpenBSD/etc. are not good/user-friendly because they lack a graphical installer." Searching the web, I couldn't find a comprehensive site describing the good and the bad about graphical installers for various OSes throughout the years, so in this article I hope to debunk a few of the myths on the basis of my own personal and professional experience.
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First off, I see people trying to argue between the virtues of a GUI vs. a CLI. I love text and the command line, but it needs to be understood that the *nix OS's provide a choice. One person can use a Linux distro that focuses on perfecting the GUI, and someone else can use Linux or a *BSD via a serial connection using only text. In the end, it's the same OS driving the system, but they're both being used in a completely different way and for different reasons. 'Choice' is one of the many beautiful things about the open source world. Learn to love it.
Now, regarding the automation of a Linux install, Slackware has been able to do this for as long as I've been using it. You simply create a directory structure somewhere that mimics the directory structure on the ftp site or the install cd, and include your customized tagfiles in each of those directories. You can have the installer install a package automatically, ignore the package completely, or ask whether it should be installed or not. Then to install, all you need to do is configure the partitions, choose your install source, and then point the installer to your custom tagfiles. Then go have a cup of tea or something.