[Mageia-discuss] Suggestions

[Juergen Harms]

On 10/23/2010 07:16 AM, Ahmad Samir wrote:
> With the current installer you can select "customize" (instead of
> selecting KDE or GNOME) and uncheck all the options there when you
> click next the installer will even give you options to:
> - install/not-install X
> - install/not-install suggested packages
> - go with a really minimal system and not install even urpmi

Right - that is OK for me and for you, and we can use things like 
drax/package_list.pl if we do want to do fancy customisation scripts - 
but that is not the issue I wanted to discuss.

In (part of) this thread a reflection is made on how to address 
customers with specific "target" profiles, and on the opportunity to 
shape the system for helping so targetted users get the system they want 
- on what profiles should be considered.

The discussion also made the point that this might help to increase the 
attractivity of Mageia for new users - particular those with an 
MS-windows culture. Such users are ready to say "I want games" or "I 
need engineering tools", but they do not want to get involved with first 
finding and then adding bits; if they "have a profile" the minimum KDE 
or Gnome installation will - and should - not be enough for them (and, 
btw, at least for KDE, the, "minimum" configuration is far from a 
minimum configuration, it rather looks like a configuration concocted 
for "the typical KDE user" as seen by some non-user).

The question I asked is how this is possible without burrying such 
configuration issues into the system installation software and keep 
things simple and flexible. Yes, the components you mention exist and do 
not need to be re-created - the issue is whether they should / could be 
wrapped up into a nice user interface that would help picking up the 
suggestions made in this thread.