Fedora install support for netbooks -- small screen size

[Robert Moskowitz]

On 01/06/2010 01:57 PM, Adam Jackson wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-01-06 at 12:26 -0500, Fulko Hew wrote:
>
>    
>> Auto-scroll bar's would at least make it possible to work (even if its
>> inconvenient); but without it, it's _impossible_ to use.
>>
>> The only alternative would be to re-design the UI based on expected
>> hardware limitations.
>>      
> It's funny you should say that.
>
> We've had 800x600 as the expected minimum for _years_.  Like, since it
> was called Red Hat Linux.  It's not even a particularly egregious
> assumption, that's the fallback resolution for Windows 2k and later, and
> it's the Gnome HIG minimum design size.
>
> That's why anaconda has a fixed-size UI, and why that fixed size happens
> to be 800x600.
>
> And it turns out that trying to make a UI like that - disk partitioning
> in particular - that scales well to arbitrary screen sizes is actually
> pretty dang impossible.  This is why the text mode installer got cut
> down, so that it now basically only has "I'm going to install now, try
> and stop me".  You just can't represent enough information in that
> little space.  And the same is probably true of the netbook install
> experience too.  You don't care about partitioning, you don't care about
> multiboot, you just want the OS on the machine dangit.
>    

Actually, I DO work with disk partitioning.  It is NOT TOO hard...

:)

> That's a far better experience than throwing up some scrollbars and
> hoping.
>
> - ajax
>
>