Installation Proposal: Software, Patterns, Roles

[shundhammer]

Installation Proposal: Software, Patterns, Roles

This is part of #903 (Make the installation process shorter).

In the installation workflow (#914), we have this workflow step for selecting a role for the installation target machine:

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Many steps later, just before actually starting the installation, we have this installation proposal summarizing all the collected settings:

Problems

• The proposal is no longer really a "summary" in the true sense of the word; it is overcrowded, flooding the user with information.

• I don't see the previously selected role anywhere.

• What was selected as the role was expanded to the software patterns that constitute the role, yet the relationship is not clear.

• There are way too many patterns visible there, some of them just because of technical reasons, not really contributing anything useful for the user.

[shundhammer]

Patterns

We have way too many patterns visible in the proposal. For many, it is unclear to a user what they are or how they are different or why they are even mentioned:

• GNOME-Basic, GNOME (Wayland), GNOME (X11) ?!? Why would I as a user care about 3 of them?

• X11 and fonts? Yes, of course GNOME (X11) needs X11, and of course a desktop needs fonts. Why are you telling me that?

• Minimal Base System? Yes, of course I will need a base system. Why are you telling me that?

• Minimal Applicance Base? What is that, and how is it different from "Minimal Base System"?

• Two YaST patterns? What's the difference, and why would I care?

Simplifying Patterns

• Remove duplicates (or patterns that appear to be duplicates). They only confuse users.

• Remove patterns that are added only as a dependency of other patterns:

  • "GNOME (Basic)" if anything beyond that ("GNOME (Wayland)" or "GNOME (X11)" will be installed
  • "Minimal Base System" if anything beyond that will be installed
  • "Enhanced Base System" if anything beyond that will be installed
  • X11 if any desktop using X11 will be installed
  • Fonts (yes, of course any graphical desktop will need fonts; no need to mention that)
  • "Software Management" (meaning libzypp and zypper?) if anything beyond "Minimal Base System" will be installed

The Radical Approach

Get rid of the patterns completely on this level. Just show the role; that will hopefully implicitly make clear what main pattern (i.e. what desktop) will be installed.

Of course we will still need some hyperlink so the user can change the software to install, preferably starting on the patterns level.

[shundhammer]

Role

Since the pivotal point for selecting software has changed from a main pattern (which used to be one of the desktop patterns) to a more generic role, the installation proposal should show the role, and it should be possible from the proposal to change it; which would implicitly change the patterns and thus the package selection.

It is also unclear to a user what exactly the relationship between the role and the patterns is. A user can only rely on guesswork. Is it more than selecting a bunch of software patterns? Does it affect any other settings? Are there hidden implications?

Remember that back (many years back) when we invented the concept of software patterns, it was implicit that a software pattern might also include a configuration workflow or sub-workflow: When a user selects a "web server" pattern, it was planned to also start the configuration workflow for that pattern.

This never materialized, though (relying on the packages auto-configuring themselves), but users might suspect something similar for roles.