New Users, your input needed

Booting, installing, newbie
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tim
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Joined: Fri 03 Jun 2005, 11:19
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#21 Post by tim »

Hi Rich, I'm using version 1.01 with Firefox, found it on the website, so i probably need to have another look and see where i'm going wrong - i'm away now for a couple of weeks so it will have to wait..........
I did get a chance to play some Avi's which worked realy well - havn't had so much fun for ages!
thanks
Tim

Boogle

#22 Post by Boogle »

I am sure these idea's have already been thought of, and many more.

Minor issue 1:
Selecting a keyboard is a bit confusing, especially if your country acronymn is not on the initial scroll screen, and the non-standard keyboards are at the top of the list.

You also need a very easy way to change it if you get it wrong.

Solutions could be: Clickable simple world map not unlike the time/zone setup for windows and other setups.

Automatically have the most common keyboard setup being selected. As puppy gets more popular, you would probably want an iso build for each common langauge used, with the keyboard maps and langauge defaulted.

Minor Issue 2: Internet setup.
We are more and more an online society... As time goes on more people will have ADSL and most modems are now comming out with routers etc... In fact almost everyone who gets puppy would like it to be online at some stage, so some automation perhaps after puppy has openned would be great.
Solutions
For instance, if you can detect a network card/gateway, you could either. 1) Automatically try to set it up without user input. or 2) pop up a prompt at startup asking the user if they would like it setup as it has been detected. or 3) have a flashing link on the desktop or similar, that shows that it has detected the network and can be setup by just clicking on the button.
Of course if these things are not detected there should still be obvious links for the user to follow, but in general if it is easy to detect network availability, it may as well be automated.

Minor Issue 3. - Virtual windows.
The virtual window program in the bottom right of the desktop should be defaulted to always on top in my opinion, and you should be able to right click on it to get a menu of options. Having said this, I think I saw a project on the puppy projects page, that mentioned that this program needs a GUI config.

Minor Issue 4 - Mouse setup
If it is possible to detect and select basic mouse functionality defaulted for the initial start-up without any user input, that would be great. If you select the incorrect mouse, a linux newbie would basically have to re-burn the iso to re-select the correct mouse. I initiall selected the incorrect port. I did this because I initially selected the incorrect keyboard setup, I just selected the first qwerty selection I saw, this meant when I typed in ptty, it came up as ptt^3 or something strange like that. Which meant I had problems typing, and a mouse that didn't work!!!

I was able to work out the keyboard mapping differences, alt-ctrl-del back to a shell, and clear the file, and xwin to setup those options again.

I very much doubt a linux newbie would be able to do that, so these basic options need to be taken away or greatly simplified for the user if possible.

Anyway, there are other small things that I would improve, but instead of talking about those, I'll instead say I am amazed at how good this project is. I e-mailed my Dad telling him he should download it and give it a go. He did and it worked without problem, he was impressed, but it didn't automatically have the internet working (he has it on a network) If it had done this it would have been the perfect.
As is it was his first Linux experiance, he has had 2 cd's sitting on his shelf for a year as his been wanting to try it out... The tiny size, and the ability to boot from a CD was all the push he needed.

Puppy is such a promising project, I know of a lot of people (including myself) that would scrap Windows completly. Puppy is on the verge of being easy enough to setup/use, small enough, and fast enough to convince A LOT of people that they can safetly make the switch.

Great job BARRY (And obviously the other contributers)

I will follow puppy with great interest, I am a keen developer but already have to many projects on the go to start trying to contribute to puppy (As well as recently changing jobs). I might look into the auto cd layer detection stuff, thats another things that would be fantasic, even if it has to be a user selection.

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Lobster
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Boogy the Boogle

#23 Post by Lobster »

Outstanding Post Boogle - appreciated . . .
;)

you say:
Selecting a keyboard is a bit confusing, especially if your country acronymn is not on the initial scroll screen, and the non-standard keyboards are at the top of the list.

(Australian) English could be the default?
It is also possible that at bootup - a scroll menu could be created?

You say
Internet setup.
. . . Of course if these things are not detected there should still be obvious links for the user to follow, but in general if it is easy to detect network availability, it may as well be automated.


I have DHCP and if I click two buttons I am connected - that is probably the most widely used DSL? So that could be the default? Many distros auto connect to DHCP - so potentially no effort required for end users

you say
I will follow puppy with great interest, I am a keen developer but already have to many projects on the go to start trying to contribute to puppy (As well as recently changing jobs). I might look into the auto cd layer detection stuff, thats another things that would be fantasic, even if it has to be a user selection.

We need you and your developer buddies. The truth is if you want something done ask a busy person. Please have a look at the auto cd layer proble m m m - imagine a whole room of Puppys looking up to you and your efforts . . .

Woof woof :)
Last edited by Lobster on Tue 07 Jun 2005, 05:34, edited 1 time in total.

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Boogle
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Location: Australia

CD information (Auto-run)

#24 Post by Boogle »

Thanks Lobster.

I did have a bit of a look around for some CD information that may be helpful, I have posted what I found in one of the other topics (in multi-session CD's).

If it isn't helpful I'll keep looking. And if I have time, I might have a play with the script and see if it does what puppy needs.

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