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.
Permalink for comment
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Recent Original Stories
Recent Comments
Headlines
Random Comments
Random Stories
Random OS Link
This is why preferences DO matter.
I find it much easier to man find use the option and get the result if I even have to look an option or syntax up than to go through a gui and the preferences panel and re-adjust options and then get the results. I can type faster than I can click is what I mean.
I am blind typist and type pretty fast :-) All this is good and well if you know what to look for in the man page and if there is a man page at all. "Now, there used to be some option about not checking a CRC? --no-crc-check? Ah, --verify-cyclic-redundancy-check=no? Go figure..." The same for GUI - you don't need to go looking for an option if the UI is designed good. And if the UI is bad, you have two choices : going through 100 pages of a manpage or through 100 tabs of a preferences window, the same hell.
However, to each his own. Really. The author had some good points and I think that is just as elitist to sit and say that its 2003 why are you still typing as opposed to clicking as it to tell someone they are not techie or l33t because they use gui tools.
I tend to support an opinion, that CLI is quickest and most efficient ( but not easiest ) way for you to tell smth to a computer. And GUI is the most efficient way for a computer to keep you informed.
Why? Because sometimes the command line is the fastest easiest way. Notice I said sometimes. For larger office apps I have no desire to go back to the CLI days of WordPerfect 5.2 or Lotus 1-2-3 or whatever. However, for system utilities I find in my opinion before I get flamed that the command line is the way to go.
Fastest, yes. But not always easiest. For the same reason of remembering exact names or looking for them.
BTW, most linux installers including redhat have a text-based mode for those that want it.
Or for those whose video card is not fully supported, as kinda last resort :-(
Sometimes the move to eyecandy is not always good though I still want a Graphical background to my RedHat boot process like on SuSE :->. BTW, I know its coming just not fast enough.
"What is our deadline for this project?" "It should be ready yesterday" :-)))
Fast enough, you tell me... One of the bugs I've opened in the KDE database, sits there for around a year and a half(?). Maybe, my grandchildren ( I've no children yet) will see it fixed :-(