Installation Philosophy

[Stephen Mirowski]

tfreeman at intel.digichem.net wrote:

>If the list thinks I've got something here in terms of a desired 
>capability, I'll try to bugzilla something coherant to the developers for 
>consideration. If not, well it won't be the first time I've had a brain 
>fart...
>
>Thanks in advance for the bandpass and consideration.
>
I prefer the Mandrake/iva installer to Anaconda. The ability run a 
customized install: packages, run-level, default running services and 
more before first boot. Their installer also resolves dependencies on 
the fly, but informing you of what they are and you can reject the 
changes (opposed to Anaconda's resolving after and you find out what is 
really installed after first boot). I guess I might send of list of 
things I would like to see in the installer to the maintainer, but 
here's my list:

- option to update to latest packages on install (FC5 uses yum so I 
think this is coming NEways)
- option to run different install methods (like Windows software: 
Recommended, Custom (custom would have full transparency of packages to 
be install, and show uses what the dep chains are so
they can change their mind), set run-level, etc)
- option LSB (Server or Desktop (could be two big icons to select from)) 
and adjust deps for those installs

I am not a Linux novice, nor am I super advanced, and after each install 
I end up picking away and remove packages that I don't need. I don't 
have bluetooth, or firewire, raid or SMP etc, yet how many times do I 
uncheck those boxes on the installer and this stuff is installed 
anyways. When it comes down to it, Mandriva's installer is a good 
learning tool to help me learn deps and how a system comes together.

Stephen