Paul Wise <p...@debian.org> writes: > Of course not, that would be a ridiculous suggestion.
> I would wager that most devices have another OS installed before > installing Debian. I propose that the process of installing Debian could > be made easier if the Debian install process started with an app on that > OS instead of manually choosing which d-i to download. These apps could > also do all the setup that users currently have to do manually to get > d-i to start. For example on Turris Omnia routers, you have to update > the shipped u-boot before you can boot d-i off USB. On BIOS systems you > have to press a magic key or navigate BIOS menus to figure out how to > boot d-i. > For devices that don't ship with an OS or Debian doesn't yet have an > install bootstrap app, obviously d-i ISOs would still be available and > users could manually download and run them, with or without the needed > firmware. I'm certainly fine to put work into this for those who want to use it, but I never boot any existing OS before installing Debian, and I'm sure I'm not alone. It's extremely useful to be able to install Debian on bare metal (or a newly-replaced factory hard drive) or on a system whose existing OS install is hopelessly broken. We should also help people find easier-to-use non-free install images with the required firmware to be able to bootstrap networking. The firmware sideloading mechanism is inherently arcane and complex, even for experienced Debian developers. I don't think asking people to use an existing OS install is a sufficient alternative. I'm of course 100% in favor of clearly labeling those images as undesirable and pointing out the problems with them, but the current state of the market (even apart from the acknowledgement that a lot of our users do not regularly buy new computers at full price) makes non-free firmware the only available choice for a lot of people. -- Russ Allbery (r...@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
