Ubuntu desktop configuration wizard (suggestion)

Frank Niedermann fbn at thelogic.org
Tue Apr 12 06:37:35 CDT 2005


Hi,

I'm new to Ubuntu and I'm missing an important feature:

Ubuntu desktop configuration wizard

After the Installation (which is very nice) the user gets the GDM login
screen and then the Gnome 2.10 desktop.

But what to do next? There are some things most desktop users will try
to do after a brand new installation like installing more applications
and codecs for audio / video, web-plugins, desktop environment settings,
mounting eventually available windows partitions and so on.

Users which are new to Linux/Ubuntu/Gnome have to learn, try and search
to get all these things working which is sometimes good because they
really learn a lot but I believe most users want to use the system in
a short time and not spend a bunch of hours searching the web about
how to do general things after an installation.

"This should just work" - a graphical wizard that starts after the
first login to Gnome and asks the user "do you want to use packages
from the universe and multiverse? explanation ..." would be great.

Explanation is important but should not be too long - users want to
work with the os and the applications they usually don't want to learn
how there are working.

The wizard should then change settings and execute an apt-get update
in the background while the wizard asks the next questions.

Sure this wizard has to be optional and should be as intuitive as
possible because some people could get annoyed of being asked stupid
(in their mind) questions by the wizard. So the first question could
be "Are you a new user to Linux / Unbutu / Gnome?" and based on this
answer the wizard should pre-select the questions it asks the user.

An expert could exit the wizard and do everything on his own if he
wants to so he has affort of one click.

What do you think about that?

Regards,
  Frank





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