Am Mittwoch, 29. Juli 2009 02:15:16 schrieb Gabriel:
On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 6:41 PM, Sven Burmeister<sven.burmeister@gmx.net> wrote:
The reason for defaults is to help new users because they cannot make a choice. That's why there are defaults for the filesystem, browser, email- client, chat client, package patterns in general etc.
A new user does not know what KDE or Gnome is, how should he make a choice? You could as well put a "feeling lucky" button there.
How did you choose your desktop the first time?, did you know anything about any desktop env?
I started with RedHat and did not have to make a choice. Then I switched to SuSE and did not have to make a choice either.
If the user does not know, then let him investigate, search, ask. Why make the choice for them?
Because if a new user comes to that page he wants to install Linux and being told: "do some reading and research first" does not help in that situation.
Current desktop selection windows is not good too. Option buttons should be replaced by check boxes, and let the user install all desktops if he/she wants.
In fact, selecting all desktops by default would be the only valid solution, if one argues that new users need to try each desktop before they can make a choice. Having one selected by default is the other valid solution if one argues in favour of usability, as e.g. little things like switching DE or knowing that they each have separate settings (unlike the OSs the new users come from) just make life harder for newbies. The whole point of defaults is to relief them of making a choice if they cannot take it because of lack of knowledge. The purpose of choice is that they can change defaults if they want to. If you really think that (new) users must be forced to make a choice and investigate, ask etc. then I wait for your fate requests that the user is asked during installation which browser to use by default, which filesystem, email-client, chat-client, file-browser etc. Anything else would not be consequent. Although Gnome has taken this to an extreme, I thought that especially Gnome users should like and understand what defaults are meant to be. And I still don't get why selecting a default desktop decreases choice. the only difference is that one of the radio-buttons on that installation page is selected, it does not change anything for those that want a different desktop. So why does it decrease choice? Sven -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org