Hi Matthew,

First, welcome on our new mailing list. Just today I want to officially switch from the old mailing list to this new one. It really seems that having ML under Fedora works better for community. You are the first meaningful mail here :).

See my replies below.

Dne 01. 12. 21 v 21:16 Matthew Miller napsal(a):

So, first ... the new anaconda UI launched, like, a decade ago. It was a huge improvement over what was there.... but it's probably time for at least the next refinement? h But, that's big. And I don't know when there might be plans for anything like that.

Exactly :). Right now, we are starting on complete re-work of UI but the work just recently started. We would like to switch the Anaconda GUI to a web based solution. More info to come when we will have a bit more to show. Based on what I just wrote we obviously don't want to invest to the current UI. We will still maintain it but it would be a waste of resources to do a bigger changes now.

However, I was reading https://hackandslash.blog/linux-basics-how-to-install-linux/ which has a nice comparison of different distro installers, and some nice things to say about Anaconda — "The Fedora installer is more parallel and streamlined than Ubuntu's".

But it does note:

After you click on the "Installation Destination" button, you'll be
greeted with the above screen. This is where a lot of people get confused
with the Fedora installer. If there is only one disk, that disk is
automatically selected. If that is the case for you, you can simply click
done here and the entire disk will be used for the installation.

And, yeah, that's absolutly right. That confuses a lot of people. Just now did an install of Fedora Server in a VM, and had to remind myself of that step. I think we could do three small things to make this better.

1. Please please please this https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/pull/2242 :)

This may be a nice improvement. Vladimir, what do you think, do we want to finish it?

2. I think the disk checkbox is not obvious enough — I've observed a lot of people who are confused about what's selected and what's not. And since if people have multiple drives they may care _very much_ that the wrong one not get used, it takes a lot of brainpower to confirm.

   One suggestion would be to use a lists-in-columns pattern, with selected drives in a box on the right, unselected drives in a list on the left, and arrows (and drag and drop?) to move them back and forth. Or, above and below if the layout doesn't make left-right work well.

   Color coding might help, but it's hard because it's unclear if "green" / "safe" coding means "use this!" or "don't touch", and similarly red/warning/negative could mean "ignore" ... or "destroy what's here!".

   So I'll leave the specifics to a UI person, but... I think we should highlight that as an area to improve.

3. When there is just one available unparitioned disk, just select it and say so. Don't give a warning icon and make people go into the spoke to clear it.

   If there is just one disk _and it has sufficient free space_, select and pre-configure that _maybe_ with a "notice" indicator, but not one that blocks moving forward.

In addition to this, it would be nice to make the "begin installation" instructions bigger and more friendly feeling.

Over and over, I have seen people who think they need to click through each spoke, and who then complain "why can't I just press 'next' through all of these". In other words, they're getting the _opposite_ effect from the intention of the design, which is "you shouldn't have to press next on things you're not changing". I still think that's the right design, but I think we could show it to people better.

Definitely good points. We will think about this during the new UI design. Thanks for your input!

Best Regards, Jirka