From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 27372 invoked from network); 14 Jan 2004 21:10:31 +0000 Received: from smtp.gentoo.org (128.193.0.39) by eagle.gentoo.oregonstate.edu with DES-CBC3-SHA encrypted SMTP; 14 Jan 2004 21:10:31 +0000 Received: from lists.gentoo.org ([128.193.0.34] helo=eagle.gentoo.org) by smtp.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.24) id 1AgsHX-0003aO-9X for arch-gentoo-dev@lists.gentoo.org; Wed, 14 Jan 2004 21:10:31 +0000 Received: (qmail 13822 invoked by uid 50004); 14 Jan 2004 21:09:42 +0000 Mailing-List: contact gentoo-dev-help@gentoo.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-dev@gentoo.org Received: (qmail 6404 invoked from network); 14 Jan 2004 21:09:42 +0000 Message-ID: <001101c3dae2$a8596200$d30111ac@spider> From: "Brian Dwornick" To: References: <4005682C.2070708@stevesworld.hopto.org> Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 16:09:10 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] Installer For Gentoo X-Archives-Salt: f01f1a96-eb7f-4264-92ff-c58588f8cbca X-Archives-Hash: ead6f9718261a1d175651b67e5374513 There are two very different reasons that I can see for making an installer. One is to make it easier to install gentoo for people that are not comfortable with linux. This in my opinion would be a bad move as gentoo isn't aimed to be the first linux distribution someone uses. The seconds reason would be to make it easier to install in a corporate enviroment (server farms, multiple offices, etc.) With this in mind, I believe an "installer" should be implemented as a text based script, not a pretty GUI. It should read a config file made by whoever is doing the install that has many default configs in it and maybe prompt for the uses of the machine. IE: The following configs have been detected please choose one: [0] Prompt for config [1] Desktop (KDE) [2] Laptop (KDE) [3] Email/Web/DNS Server (No X) [4] Rendering Farm ? 2 What stage would you like to start from? [1] [2] [3] ... At this point the installer could make choices that would produce the optimal system but without the system admin having to sit and type the same things over and over. The make.conf could be generated by using /proc and the settings from the loaded config. Basically, distributions like Redhat make many decisions for you. I would hate to see an installer that took choices from the users hands, as, gentoo seems to be about choice. My two cents, Brian ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Clowater" To: Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 11:02 AM Subject: [gentoo-dev] Installer For Gentoo *snip* -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list