removing the junk.

[Devin Teske]

On Tue, 2010-06-22 at 08:47 -0700, Devin Teske wrote:
> On Mon, 2010-06-21 at 19:14 -0700, Randi Harper wrote:
> >   Networking - anyone that knows how to use these services won't be
> > using sysinstall to set them up.
> >      AMD/AMD flags
> >      Anon FTP
> >      inetd
> >      NFS client
> 
> Referring to performing installs over NFS? We do this multiple times a
> day (many thousands of times-over a year, year-after-year).
> 
> Please-oh-please don't remove ability to install via NFS.

Though, I realize that perhaps we're talking about the cadre of
questions that comes after the standard install.

You may be right that anyone whom knows how to use said services won't
be using sysinstall to set them up...

... but what about the people that don't know how to use said services
whom are trying out FreeBSD for the first time?

I can conceptualize some of my friends whom may know Linux, or even
other BSDs, but are not familiar with the way that FreeBSD works --
speaking specifically to the localization of settings and toggle-bits
in /etc/rc.conf (and *.local -- and now in /etc/conf.d too).

It is occasionally rather nice to be able to -- when showing a competent
engineer around FreeBSD -- fire up sysinstall and point out all the
things that FreeBSD knows how to do (by way of all the things you can
set up).

>From a marketing stand-point, the cadre of options that come after the
standard install also serve a purpose to "advertise" (simply by
visibility) to the user all the things that FreeBSD can do "out of the
box".

Last, if they really wanted to not be bothered with a list of questions,
perhaps they ought to have not chosen to be bothered (if I recall
correctly, there's a single question which allows you to opt-out of the
cadre of questions). There's also an express and custom install path for
people that really know what they are doing.

I'll bite that the questions are a bit cumbersome though...

PLUS...

It's annoying as all-hell that I can't just (a) jump to the option that
interests me and (b) skip [immediately] options that I don't care about.

So, if the prevailing logic is...

"let's keep the ability to configure these things through sysinstall
purely because it's nice to have from a marketing and/or advertising
stand-point for new users that may need assistance in getting required
services up and running in a limited fashion"

...then the next natural jump in logic is...

"rather than barrage the user with question-after-question, simply list
all the services that can be setup and let the user choose which ones
interest him-or-her ... if none are of interest, they have a "cancel"
option which gets them out of the post-install configuration options."

This indeed sounds like it would be a very minor change. After the
install is complete, I think we already ask them if they would like to
perform some post-installation configuration of services...

...I feel if they opt-into configuring additional services, that they
should then be dumped into a menu where they can bee-line straight to
the guy that they want.

Naturally, gurus won't care to use these "simplified" configurators (ala
sysinstall) and would rather opt to set things up manually, but it is
arguable that those people are already hard-set on staying with FreeBSD
(they know the system afterall), while the configurators made available
via sysinstall are designed first-and-foremost to entice and aid the
users whom are perhaps simply just trying FreeBSD (and therefore are far
more likely to be put-off if they can't figure out how to do something).
-- 
Cheers,
Devin Teske

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