Pimp My Installer

From openSUSE

Pimp My Installer

This page is under construction!

This page will contain ideas, mockups and other discussions on how to improve the look & feel of the openSUSE installer.

The problem

openSUSE has been rapidly evolving, but the installer has stayed the same for many versions! The installer is the first thing potential openSUSE users see, and an immediate 'pleasant surprise' effect is very important, particularly considering the competition from other installers available. Previous SUSE users also erroneously presume sometimes that the distro is the same since the installer hasn't changed, unfortunately.

So below are a few ideas for improvement.

Mockups

Current 11.0 Alpha 0 YaST is using QT4 and looks like first mockup. The third mockup is based off of the proposed GreyGreen theme for 11.0.

Workflow

Location

For people in Australia, we currently have to do the following each time a new install is performed;

1.Select Language (we select English/UK)

2.Select Time Zone (we select Australia/City)

3.Change the keyboard from English/UK to English/US

A better way would be to select the Country/City on the front page, perhaps via a graphical world map, such as the one in Evolution;

The installer then should know that if it's Australia/Sydney, set the Language to English/UK and keyboard to English/US.

If people are having to go through these hops in other countries, please add it here.

In New Zealand we also have to select the same Language and Keyboard after selecting New Zealand/Auckland. The installer should know to default to these.

Note: I hope that if this option is added, you can still change language and keyboard, because here in portugal using English instead of Portuguese is very common (but we still use Portuguese keyboard).

The user chooses his access settings. For a local user is could be done in one screen. Some network user settings (e.g. NIS) can be done on an extra screen.

In the third and last step the user chooses the task he wants to accomplish and has the possibility to choose a place on the hard disc manually.