RFC: User experience with localization of LiveCD

[Alexey Balmashnov]

Dear all,

Currently, situation with localization is "strange":
* There is full localization just for a few languages provided on the
LiveCD and a partial localizations for the rest (not sure here, may be
just for another number of languages)
* Booting into the live-session selecting the language from the second
group mentioned above presents to the user partially localized system.
In most cases, in my experience, this considered by the user as
*broken* system
* Every release cycle there is always a struggle to fit everything on
the CD and localization packages are one of the first in the list of
things to be scrapped (of course, it might be just my perception)

To improve user experience with the LiveCD and distribution
consistency the following might be considered:
* Include on the LiveCD in full *only* English language
* For the rest: include localizations for initial startup menus,
installer and a small additional notification application (see below)
* Develop application, which should start up automatically within
live-session after user selected language with partial localization
(namely, non-English in this scenario). This application should notify
the user about possibility to have system in many languages. And,
possibly, explain the procedure and might be even walk user through
the localization of live-session environment if all necessary
resources are available (Internet connection is up and running, there
is enough memory to perform download and installation of additional
packages etc). Thus the fully localized live-session environment might
be presented to the user after additional simple steps.
* If user decides to perform installation of the system, packages
downloaded for live-session localization should be used for
localization of "normal" system.

In my opinion the steps above will greatly improve consistency of
distribution presentation and user experience (first few moments most
of the time are most memorable). Of course, rough description of
scenario above needs polishing. Moreover, as such it might get easier
for developers to fit some additional stuff and still use only CD for
distribution of the system.

All above may be unnecessary, if there will be move to distribution of
the system on DVD with inclusion of all localizations. I hope they
will fit altogether, but I might be wrong, since I do not know exact
numbers.

Regards,
  Alexey Balmashnov

PS. If this is not the right place for such RFC, please point me in
the right direction