Re: FreeBSD Installer vs RedHat Linux Fedora Core Installer?

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bobmc wrote:
Bill Moran wrote:

In response to "Peter aka SweetPete" [1]<swtpete@xxxxxxxxx>:



Hello, I used to be on this mailing list several years ago, and have
recently rejoined.

[2]http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/using-sysinstall.h
tml
[3]http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/main1.png

vs.

[4]http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/install-guide/fc6/en/ch-beginninginstallation.
html#sn-booting-from-disc
[5]http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/install-guide/fc6/en/figs/bootprompt.png

Could I begin a thread (now) about a comparison (and relatively
inferiorness) of the following two installers please?? I WOULD run
FreeBSD at home instead of Fedora if the installer were more .....erm,
"""Microsoftly."""

Do you among the developer circle hear this kind of thing from time to time?


This seems to come up over and over again. About every other month.

The developers are aware of it. The general consensus is that "yes, our
installer could be nicer/prettier/easier/etc"

However, until someone either takes the time to write a better one, or
foots some cash to get a better one written, or blackmails a developer
in to doing it or something else, we still have what we have.

I think the biggest problem is that the installer is "good enough" -- so
nobody is particularly interested in rewriting it until it's not good
enough any more -- even though it could be better.



Coincidently, issue 68 of linuxuser.co.uk has a positive review of
Fedora 6.
But Cons: "Anacoda installer is clumsy and poorly designed, due for a
major overhaul". (in the reviewer's opinion). It looks fine to me?
I like Mepis Linux for it's superior usability and attention to
detail. But in
FreeBSD I am looking for a lightweight efficient OS that can run a
media
management system (TBD) on a low-power Mini-ITX computer.
IMO, iterative and incremental developement in the FOSS way is more
effective than paradigm shift. Therefore, the existing sysinstall
program
can be improved by setting up a mini-project to do just that.
I am sure there are plenty of ideas to improve usability. How about
replacing most of these sequential dialogues with tabbed panels where
you
can check settings in any order? -Bob-

References

1. mailto:swtpete@xxxxxxxxx
2. http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/using-sysinstall.html
3. http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/install/main1.png
4. http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/install-guide/fc6/en/ch-beginninginstallation.html#sn-booting-from-disc
5. http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/install-guide/fc6/en/figs/bootprompt.png

Rather than saying "Blah installer" is better than FreeBSD installer,
could you provide specific examples of where and how it could be better?

My only complaint with the installer deals with the binary repository
when downloading/fetching binaries for the first time from behind a NAT
(Netgear router); many times the installer fails after a period of time
due to a checksum or extraction error. However, my complaints may not
coincide with other's complaints.

Also, an interesting thing is that sysinstall required (at least in my
case) a clean filesystem / partition tables every time I tried to
install. Whenever I installed with a partially or complete filesystem,
sysinstall would die every single time when installing when fetching /
extracting sources.
- -Garrett
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