GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 117010
Remove the User Install Dialogs (or reduce them)
Last modified: 2004-07-09 22:30:24 UTC
when you first run the GIMP you are presented with the user installer gimp/app/gui/user-install-dialog.c this should eventually be removed entirely. in the short term much of it could be removed to leave only questions that are absolutely essential and at most only one page would be needed (any further explanation could be provided in the documentation). in a vain effort to try and be more to the point just read the main sentences and ignore the more complex verbose justifications and comments that are in brackets []. The rest of this report is really just verbose justfication why almost of all of the user install dialog/wizard should be removed. when a new user runs the GIMP for the first time it is confusing to be asked these questions. [Even if they wanted to read the manual most people access the manual by opening the program and choosing from the help menu from there]. the first page shows the GPL, this is not needed. [you dont need to agree to the GPL to use the software, it only matters if you want to redistribute the GIMP. While is nice to advertise the GPL and to try and get the user to understand it, it is not necessary.] the second page tells you that configuration files will need to be created. the third page shows the personal directory being created, the users dont need to know about this unless something goes wrong. [there are some many other programs that create folders and configuration files and dont ask] fourth page ask you about the is the tile cache and the swap directory. this can be set from preferences, it is not needed here. [when the user first runs GIMP they are unlikely to know what this means. Using the user directory for swap is a reasonable. Those know enough to to want it else where should be able to figure out how set it some other way.] fifth page: monitor resolution by default the GIMP should just get this from the windowing system and only ask if that does not work properly. [Why dont i do this myself? I suck at programming. If no one else does this I will get around to it eventually. I suck at programming. It is a huge effort to provide patches, I dont want to spend all that time on patches that will not be accepted. I suck at programming, so GIMP hacking is a really inefficient use of my time even bug reporting is a huge distraction] [Just near the start of the HIG the sections "Keep it simple and pretty" and "Put the User in Control" i think help justify my suggestions http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/1.0/usabilityprinciples.html] [Another issue is that on smaller displays (800x600) the user install screen it too large to fit onscreen.]
First of all, it's absolutely unacceptable to install files in the user's home directory without asking first, so we can't skip page 2 of user_install. Then, not showing the GPL on initial startup is not an option, since we *want* people to know that they install free software and not some binary-only crap. The tile_cache and swap_dir page is about the settings which are most crucial for good performance and we added them for exactly the reason that a new user should be aware of them. The monitor_resolution page is not really needed, granted, but then most users are absolutely unaware that using inches, cm etc. is useless without having set the monitor_res right. (And, an 800x600 screen is nothing i would call suitable for running GIMP anyway...) IMHO this bug should be closed as NOTABUG or WONTFIX.
> First of all, it's absolutely unacceptable to install files in I dont accept that, just look at most Gnome and KDE applications. Even if you did you would not need a whole page. At most all you would need say is one sentence, something like GIMP will need to install configuration files which take up roughly 500 kb > Then, not showing the GPL on initial startup is not an option, since we *want* people to know that they install free software and not some binary-only crap. Evangelism is alright but to most people it is the same as the annoying advertising and branding that the proprietary "binary-only crap" likes to inflict on users. The Help menu or the About Dialog are appropriate places to put a link to the License file. It is reasonable to include something in the Documentation about how important free and open software is. Users dont read license agreements, you cant force them to. Taking a user hostile attitude is a really bad idea. > And, an 800x600 screen is nothing i would call suitable for running GIMP anyway...) Popularity is a bitch. Like it or not the GIMP is the defacto standard for image editing on Linux and BSD enviroments. Why exclude users? Why take a user hostile attitude?
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 113165 ***
I dont think that was fair. This is not some whim I came up with on the spur of the moment, it is something that has bothered me since the first time I used the GIMP four years ago and bothers me every time i see it. that bug report was vague and tried to deal with several issues. If nothing else the Installer could stand to be reduced by at least a page or two.
Please read the description of the bug status. The status NEEDINFO is when we need info from the reporter (you) before doing anything else with this bug. Anyway, I agree that your descriptions of what should be improved is much clearer than what is described in bug #113165, so in this case it would have been better to set the duplicate in the opposite direction (although this is unusual). However, bug #113165 deals with other issues as well, so we should first decide whether these other things will be dropped or not before marking it as a duplicate of this one.
The bug report is a duplicate, that's a fact. Whether the original report should be reopened or not is a different thing. We had a close look at the user install dialog yesterday evening and we did a number of small improvements but overall we still think that it should stay and that reducing it by a page or two will not improve the user experience.
IMHO this report suggests a regression but since there is no such severity level, I will mark it as a possible enhancement instead. I am willing to consider the removal of the Monitor Resolution page and I could also imagine to hide the Installation log unless there's a problem. If someone comes up with such a patch, we will consider to apply it. If this patch is supposed to go into the next release, it should be available soon (mainly because I want to avoid further string change whenever possible).
Changing target milestone to future (for several of my bugs at once) as requested by the developers. Most of my reports are things that would be nice but non-essentail and certainly are not blockers for 2.0.
2004-06-10 Sven Neumann <sven@gimp.org> * app/gui/user-install-dialog.c: removed the monitor calibration from the user installation process. It's not a vital setting and can be done from the Preferences dialog later. Can this be closed as FIXED now?
I would say so.