1. Warren Block wblock@FreeBSD.org
Thinking about Installers: Discord and Happiness

2. Who Cares? the installer is often a user's first exposure
Ever make a bad first impression?

3. just install the system
What is an Installer?
just install the system

4. install the system the user wants
What is an Installer?
install the system the user wants

5. the installer does exactly
The Perfect Installer
the installer does exactly
what the user wants

6. some defaults are correct
The Actual Installer
some defaults are correct
some are always wrong

7. profile: the full set of installation options
Definition: profile
profile: the full set of installation options
2012: Paul Schenkeveld

8. Discord s = n • (Δprofile)2
Δprofile = the difference between the default
and what the user wants
n = number of installs
s = suckage

9. I was told there would be no math.
Discord
I was told there would be no math.

10. Discord

11. The Key Insight
Hexapodia

12. an installer is really two things:
The Key Insight
an installer is really two things:
a profile editor
a profile installer

13. The Perfect Installer
Recursive profiles: a system profile is composed of other profiles
disk profile - plain or RAID
partition profile - MBR or GPT
filesystem profile - UFS or ZFS
packages profile - packages to be installed

14. Profiles Each has a default that can be used or modified
After an install, profiles can be saved
to any attached media

15. Profiles
At the beginning of an install, profiles can be loaded from any attached media
including the installer media
or any network connection

16. The installer looks for and lets the user load any profiles found

17. Profiles if the exact profile desired is not present,
load the closest one, or the default profile,
and modify it
the new custom profile will be available
for the next time

18. Potential auto-select a profile based on machine hardware
let profile show only the fields
that require modification
share profiles with other users

19. the installer becomes the perfect
The Perfect Installer
the installer becomes the perfect
installer each time

20. Summary Profiles Profile editor Profile installer
Default profiles (status quo)
Custom profiles (the perfect installer)

21. other desirable features
Other Things
other desirable features

22. Other Things
Walk-away design

23. Other Things
No entrapment

24. dialog(1) makes you stupid
Other Things
dialog(1) makes you stupid

25. it does not have to be in base
Other Things
it does not have to be in base

26. one installer for compatible architectures
Other Things
do not separate:
one installer for compatible architectures
64-Bit:
10-RELEASE
10-STABLE
9-RELEASE
9-STABLE
32-Bit:
10-RELEASE
10-STABLE
9-RELEASE
9-STABLE
For i386:

27. The End
docs/html/installers.html