idea for 10.04

[Mohammed Bassit]

On Mon, 2009-09-28 at 11:43 -0500, Patrick Goetz wrote:
> Conrad Knauer wrote:
> >>give the users at some point during the installation process options of what
> >> office suite browser and mail client they would like installed. 
> > 
> > Short answer: this is a bad idea.
> > 
> > Longer answer: the whole point of an Ubuntu install is to keep it as
> > simple as possible with sane defaults;
> 
> Although what you say is certainly true, I can easily see new users 
> using an install as a way to acquaint themselves with what options are 
> available and being able to make choices when they already know what 
> they want to use.  An MS Windows or Mac user migrating to linux will 
> already know about Thunderbird, for example; evolution, not so much. 
> And without the choice, one ends up with a desktop with evolution icons 
> everywhere, an unnecessary /usr/lib/evolution/evolution-data-server-2.26 
> running in the background, and so on, while the ability to make just a 
> couple of choices could result in a fully functional desktop immediately.
> 
> I occasionally open Synaptic just to familiarize myself with available 
> packages by browsing through the package descriptions.  By far the 
> biggest strength (and OK, maybe weakness, too) of OSS is the plethora of 
> choices; knowing about some of the major ones might not be such a bad 
> idea and could certainly help convince a new user that, "wow, this is 
> much cooler than windows".
> 
> I think the applicable principle is that any problem can be solved by 
> adding one additional layer of abstraction.  In this case, the install 
> would be abstracted to just one choice:  Give me the default Ubuntu 
> desktop install or let me select from options, which would take the user 
> down the path of firefox, chrome, or both; evolution, kmail, or 
> thunderbird, and so on.  Wouldn't that satisfy both points of view?
> 
> 

That would definitely be great...but..

I hate to repeat myself but what are we gonna do about the limited CD
space. Switch to DVD ? there is already a debate about that. Get
packages online ? what about the users who don't have internet access
during the install process (I'm thinking most people who use a modem) ?
Show them a "can't retrieve packages" kind of warning ? I believe a new
users doesn't need warnings in their (supposed) first experience with
Ubuntu.