ExplainingUbiquity

Revision 1 as of 2007-11-08 23:02:13

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Summary

Modify the somewhat technical lingo of the Ubiquity installer to convenience the casual user with no previous experience with installer processes.

Rationale

A user wants to try Ubuntu, but is not educated in the lingo used by the installer. Questions appear asking "How do you want to partition this drive", yet the user has no idea what the term "Partition" means. The user either aborts installation or risks losing precious data.

User stories

Installing Ubuntu Wiped out Windows XP [#one 1] "I have installed UBUNTU on a computer running Win XP. I used guided install, which worked fine but has completely wiped XP and all its files from the computer. Wouldn't it be a good idea if UBUNTU gave a warning about this. If UBUNTU is going to take on Windows, these matters should really be given more attention. Users of windows expect, and get help when they do something drastic,they are not IT experts and have become used to the defaults being safe."[#one 1]

Is Windows Gone? [#two 2] A user wants to install Ubuntu on his/her computer, but didn't understand the prompts, and with little warning, removed XP from said computer.

"Guided-- use entire disk" Wiped out Vista?? [#three 3] A user wanted to install Ubuntu on her computer, but misinterpreted the information given, and again, with little warning, wiped her Vista partition.

Design

This should contain easy to recognize speech and give more warning about events that could potentially destroy existing user data. Also, being more specific in and on what it is editing.

Implementation

This should replace most of the lingo used in the Ubiquity installer, e.g. instead of "Partition Ubuntu with X amount of space", It should say "This HD has X amount of space on it, and recommended amount of space to give Ubuntu is X or X% and leave XP with X or Y%"

Other Comments/Ideas

"I can confirm this bug exists.

Perhaps a few simple solutions are in order: For "Guided - Use Entire Disk", provide a link or pop-up showing what files will be deleted Also instead of listing the partitions by IDE1 master (hda), etc. Do it by what OS is installed or better yet what the DISK LABEL is. Aka Windows, etc.

For "Guided - Resize disk" Change language like in above. So it reads like: "Shrink WINDOWS partition by 50%, Install Ubuntu on freed space."

Also, I have heard of situations where only "Guided - Use Entire Disk" comes up because the partitioning scheme is to complicated. In those situations, put a warning saying just that.

In all cases let the user easily see the files that will be deleted. It is important to note that all of the other questions to this point in the install are relatively easy (just click next for me). Partitioning needs to separate itself from the just click next mentality. This might mean don't preselect any unsafe answer." - gQuigs [#four 4]

Anchor(one) 1 Installing Ubuntu Wiped out Windows XP: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/17346

Anchor(two) 2 Is Windows Gone?: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=606698

Anchor(three) 3 "Guided-- use entire disk" Wiped out Vista??: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=583705

Anchor(four) 4 gQuigs comment on launchpad: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubiquity/+bug/155185/comments/1