Some suggestions about setup

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Tue, Sep 28, 2004 at 03:24:53AM -0400, Ben Novack wrote:

> I understand and appreciate that one of Ubuntu's main goals is to
> *not* present the user with sixty seven choices they don't understand
> during setup. However:
> 
> 1) It would be really, *really* nice if the grub setup prompted the
> user to choose which OS will be booted by default, so that Johnny Q
> Public can try out Linux while keeping Windows as his main OS, without
> having to hack menu.lst and know that he has to change default=0 to
> default=3.

One option which could be implemented without a question would be to default
to "default saved" in menu.lst.  Then, grub would always boot whatever the
user had booted last.

> 2) Is there a reason gcc isn't installed by default? It's easy enough
> to get, of course, since it's on the CD, but it seems... well, surreal
> to not have any compiler around by default.

gcc is a development tool, and we don't install development tools with the
desktop install.  The rationale is that they should not be needed in a
desktop environment.

> 3) The whole "No root, use sudo" thing needs to be explained better.  It's
> a great idea, and far less confusing in the long run, but users need to
> know what's up with it - especially if they try to ask for help around the
> community and get answers that start with "as root..."

There is a note displayed in the welcome screen after installation, and
additional information in the FAQ.

> 4) An NTFS resizer would be great. The bulk of Linux newbies, in my
> experience, are looking to dual-boot an existing XP install.

We'd be dependent on parted for this; if parted gets it, we should get it
pretty much for free.

-- 
 - mdz