Right many of you may have heard about the project to create a distroagnostic installer called Calamares which we (the VDG) are involved in.

The idea is to make a simple-as-nothing installer with the option to go in and fiddle with the details of the installation hidden beneath an advanced option. A quick random googling of "calamares installer" will show you where the project is right now but we're here to make it look so pretty people will cry tears of joy while installing Linux. Obviously Calamares will be in use with several distros using KDE but it can't look too alien if someone would like to have it to install Gnome or Xfce or I3...

But wait there is more: this project is running crazy towards its first release and there are time limitations so we need to create something awesome that can be implemented easily for first version, then build on that to create an even better 1.1 version - so we need to be clever about it AND - here's the clincher: since there is not much time Anditosan and Me will be Capo di Tutti Capo of this project just to keep it on track and in time. Yes me and Andy will be gripping the reins firmly on this project (which of course doesn't mean you can't contribute. You both can and should contribute, just no that there may be a bit more of the old "sry but we'll have to do it this way".

Teo is the main dev for Calamares and he will be present in the thread (or hide somewhere behind a shrubbery thinking "who are these halfgods and heroes")

So this will start with me showing the mockups I've done - and then andy will show us his and we'll try to merge the ideas, take in new ones and make everything look spiffy. Any questions?

My idea is having a top ribbon to guide the user through the different steps based on my own first experiences installing Linux. It was scary. I felt out of control and as if I could never go back and edit stuff if I messed them up. Combined with that is an aesthetic with a central ribbon with usable graphics. Something nice and representative of whats going on that you can click and interact with.

Please note that for 1.0 there will be no globe since that is outside of the scope of the project. But it may be a future feature.

I wanted to also contribute to the discussion about this installer and I am currently working on some mockups for it. Stay tuned!

Hello everyone, I'm the Calamares developer. This is just to let you know I'm around and following closely, and to thank you in advance for your design efforts.
I'm hoping to release Calamares 1.0 very soon (fall 2014) so implementing design changes will be an incremental process.
Calamares is a distribution independent installer framework and it's hosted here: https://github.com/calamares/calamares
And here's a video of the state of Calamares about a month ago: http://vimeo.com/103598808 There have been some changes in the meantime but the look and feel is mostly the same.

jensreuterberg wrote:

Fantastic mockups, kudos!
Only thing I find distracting are the horizontal scrollbars (on the first sight the blue part looked like a selection bar to me) . Since this is yet to be coded we can evaluate more options, can't we?
I can't modify your mockup right now, since I did not find an svg (and I do not want to spoil your mockup with some pixel graphics manipulation program) file, but I would like to see using arrow buttons on the side instead of the horizontal scrollbar, as the one I mocked up in the sidebar thread:

Ah well I'll dig up the SVG and post it. The reason I avoided the vertical bar was because it clashed with the main visual (the larger bar in the middle) - so if I had to change that (which I probably will) then I kinda had to remove that too...

Anyway give me until tomorrow and I'll post the SVG's

kdeuserk wrote:Only thing I find distracting are the horizontal scrollbars (on the first sight the blue part looked like a selection bar to me) . Since this is yet to be coded we can evaluate more options, can't we?

Not only that, but horizontal scrollbars are also rather cumbersome on the interactions side (shame on me for having missed that before...), which is why they should be avoided if possible.

What would the advanced options on the language selection be?

On the keyboard, i'm unsure how you envision the "test your keyboard above" working.

Most good installers do the partitions first, this way we can start copying whilst you get the other mundane questions

What's the input box on the right of the Users page?

Here is how I perceive Calamares installer.

I moved the navigation bar toward the bottom and made it seem as part of the installation screen rather then having it on its separate space on the window. I also warmed up the colors hoping to make the installation process more inviting. I added a little bit of shadows and worked on the fonts. I was wondering if there is an Oxygen Light version for it, I think it would fit better.

http://i1108.photobucket.com/albums/h414/anditosan/CalamaresInstallerAndy_zps4f3752d7.png

Just helping out so people can see it quicker.

And it looks gorgeous! One thing though I'd love for the "advanced option" to be above the navigation ribbon since it belongs to the current area and it might be nice to emphasize that.

David: oh oh oh! That was the nicest bit btw.

Ok so I always hated the keyboard testing area (which tend to be essentially just "write stuff here") so I thought that what you really need is an image of your native keyboard and when you press buttons the correct image lights up.



The empty box is "the bit Jens isn't done with yet"

The advanced option is just a placeholder it doesn't HAVE to be there at all points BUT we can always squeeze something in. Maybe a setting to define that "yes I'm in Swedish, I speak Swedish but I want all the controls and menu's on my computer to be in English" (which is what I tend to do because if you get some kind of problem and you need to google for it, you're screwed if you don't have English/Chinese/Spanish)

jensreuterberg wrote:Ah well I'll dig up the SVG and post it.

Would be really great! That way different people can collaborate without everyone having to start from scratch!

jensreuterberg wrote:The reason I avoided the vertical bar was because it clashed with the main visual (the larger bar in the middle) - so if I had to change that (which I probably will) then I kinda had to remove that too...

What I meant was not that it should use vertical bars. All I wanted to suggest is to replace the scrollbar with the arror buttons on the side, like in the mockups I pasted.

Oh... sry

Trying to find the SVG's right now btw.

Great to see an initiative to tackle the problem of installing Linux. I like the designs, would love to see that on my screen, when I happen to need to install Linux next time!

I have some thought about this topic I would like to share:

[Vision]
Make it fail save to install Linux on your computer.

[Persona]
My mum. (Uses computers a little, but, well, you know... If there are smallest problems, she is lost. If rebooting doesn't help someone has to show up)

[Main Task]
Install Linux on you computer: Infrequent, & critical

[Base UX pattern]
Wizard.
Note to current design: This should be addressed more clearly.

[Critical Sub-Tasks]
Partitioning / formatting.
This is the most (and perhaps only) critical sub task, as it possibly destroys existing data, might be hard to revert in the future (e.g. chosen file system) and requires technical decisions / knowledge.

-> My mum will fail here on anything I have seen so far. To make her pass this hurdle we need to move the focus away from technical decisions to descriptions of the goal to reach. So why not add a sub-wizard:

### What describes the computer you install Linux to best?
- My computer
- Shared computer
- Home server
- Media PC
- ...
- I want to manually create the partitioning

-> Depending on the selection, the wizard might need to ask more questions (e.g. install disc, encryption) and should then present a recommendation for a disc partitioning to the user:

### Please confirm set up of the partitioning of disc XX
We recommend you to:
- Shrink windows98 to 20GB
- Create a boot partiton of 1 GB
- ....

[OK] [Modify partitioning]

-> This way we would get all the technical decisions out of my mums way. She would only have to describe, what she wants to use the computer for. In the end she will simply accept the partitioning and has passed this critical hurdle. Of course we need to come up with a decent decision tree, but I guess that should be doable, esp. as we only have to cover most common aspects (experts should chose the manual configuration). If we are good, we can even derive decent settings for grub and perhaps the software that should be installed in the base version out of these questions.

Get the idea?

bjoernbalazs wrote:[Critical Sub-Tasks]
Partitioning / formatting.
This is the most (and perhaps only) critical sub task, as it possibly destroys existing data, might be hard to revert in the future (e.g. chosen file system) and requires technical decisions / knowledge.

Agreed, this is indeed the point where the most difficult decisions have to be made and novice users don't get enough information to make an informed decision.

-> My mum will fail here on anything I have seen so far. To make her pass this hurdle we need to move the focus away from technical decisions to descriptions of the goal to reach. So why not add a sub-wizard:

### What describes the computer you install Linux to best?
- My computer
- Shared computer
- Home server
- Media PC
- ...
- I want to manually create the partitioning

-> Depending on the selection, the wizard might need to ask more questions (e.g. install disc, encryption) and should then present a recommendation for a disc partitioning to the user:

### Please confirm set up of the partitioning of disc XX
We recommend you to:
- Shrink windows98 to 20GB
- Create a boot partiton of 1 GB
- ....

[OK] [Modify partitioning]

-> This way we would get all the technical decisions out of my mums way. She would only have to describe, what she wants to use the computer for. In the end she will simply accept the partitioning and has passed this critical hurdle. Of course we need to come up with a decent decision tree, but I guess that should be doable, esp. as we only have to cover most common aspects (experts should chose the manual configuration). If we are good, we can even derive decent settings for grub and perhaps the software that should be installed in the base version out of these questions.

Sounds like a great idea! Certainly one which needs a lot of work to define good partition layouts per usage type as well as the questions necessary to get all the needed information. We'd have to collaborate closely with developers on this concept.
So it's definitely not 1.0 material, but I'd really like to see such a partitioning wizard come to life!

bjoernbalazs wrote:Great to see an initiative to tackle the problem of installing Linux. I like the designs, would love to see that on my screen, when I happen to need to install Linux next time!

I have some thought about this topic I would like to share:

[Vision]
Make it fail save to install Linux on your computer.

[Persona]
My mum. (Uses computers a little, but, well, you know... If there are smallest problems, she is lost. If rebooting doesn't help someone has to show up)

[Main Task]
Install Linux on you computer: Infrequent, & critical

[Base UX pattern]
Wizard.
Note to current design: This should be addressed more clearly.

[Critical Sub-Tasks]
Partitioning / formatting.
This is the most (and perhaps only) critical sub task, as it possibly destroys existing data, might be hard to revert in the future (e.g. chosen file system) and requires technical decisions / knowledge.

-> My mum will fail here on anything I have seen so far. To make her pass this hurdle we need to move the focus away from technical decisions to descriptions of the goal to reach. So why not add a sub-wizard:

### What describes the computer you install Linux to best?
- My computer
- Shared computer
- Home server
- Media PC
- ...
- I want to manually create the partitioning

-> Depending on the selection, the wizard might need to ask more questions (e.g. install disc, encryption) and should then present a recommendation for a disc partitioning to the user:

### Please confirm set up of the partitioning of disc XX
We recommend you to:
- Shrink windows98 to 20GB
- Create a boot partiton of 1 GB
- ....

[OK] [Modify partitioning]

-> This way we would get all the technical decisions out of my mums way. She would only have to describe, what she wants to use the computer for. In the end she will simply accept the partitioning and has passed this critical hurdle. Of course we need to come up with a decent decision tree, but I guess that should be doable, esp. as we only have to cover most common aspects (experts should chose the manual configuration). If we are good, we can even derive decent settings for grub and perhaps the software that should be installed in the base version out of these questions.

Get the idea?

Thanks for encouraging capturing a vision, the target user(s) and the scenarios Bjorn! This will be helpful in understanding whether a particular design accomplishing what it is really intended to. I encourage my fellow VDGers to consider these pieces as we tackle this design together. Cool stuff so far!!