Ok BruceB! Shields up....here we go!
@ drjdahman....dont be alarmed - this is how things get done around here
I was referring to the lines in the standard menu.lst that are created by grubconfig. It requires manual text file editing to enable it to correctly boot. I believe they are stored in that program somewhere...however this is not the main point I wish to make.
Bruce B wrote:A bug by my definition; is when a program or routine
behaves other than how the programmer intended it
to behave.
The intentions of the "programmer" (in this case Barry Kauler) were made plain when he wrote the Mission Statement (in full here). Point 1 (the first one) reads....
BarryK wrote:Puppy will easily install to USB, Zip or hard drive media.
OK..."easily" is a subjective term......who should it be easy for? Point 5 of the Mission statement reads
BarryK wrote:Puppy will be extremely friendly for Linux newbies
and point 8 states
BarryK wrote:Puppy will just work, no hassles
Ok...According to the programmers intentions, the "Program" (Puppy Linux) should be able to be installed onto a hard drive easily by someone with no experience of Linux, without any hassles. Is this the case?
Heres what happens if you type "Puppy Linux" into google...google has a nifty little "autocomplete" feature that links to pages that contains terms which include the terms previous to it. Heres a screenshot...
Ok...would there really be that many entries in google (most of them tortuous walkthroughs) if Puppy Linux was actually "easy to install by Linux newbies with no hassles"?
I did have a whole bunch of screenshots of the Puppy Universal Installer and the Grub Config Manager....a gauntlet of linux-specific terminology, laced with double lockouts, linux-guru knowledge assumptions, config file editing, un-demountable drives, dead ends, etc etc, but I must go out now and simply dont have time to prepare them all. Mapping it all out, with the usability issues highlighted would take me a day at least, if not longer.
The fact is, Puppy Linux isnt "easy to install by Linux newbies with no hassles". If you doubt that, sit down with a "linux newbie" and watch them try. I had had 20 years of computing experience with windows, (15 of it at a professional level) when I first tried to install puppy linux (1.09ce) to a hard drive of a computer, and it took me a week of hard mental graft to figure it out the first time. The installer hasnt changed since then.
Compare puppies installation method with the
Ubuntu one.
Conclusion
Its a bug because the installer doesnt work how the programmer intended...
"EASILY"!
Ok....so what to do about it?
The installer needs a complete re-work from the ground up, focused not on grubs, MBR's, partitions and menu.lst's, but on how the user wants his computer to behave, according to the level that they (the "linux newbie") understands it. This would propel Puppy Linux further away from being a useful utility disk/linux demo towards a fully fledged linux distribution more useful to its (very large) target audience.
I am happy to work designing the user interface/background processes of this project, but I would be unable to complete it on my own as I do not possess anything but the most basic level of Bash/GTK coding skills.
This will bring far more people away from Windows and into using free software than any kernel update
Who's up for it?
Woof Woof!