Canonical is working hard these days to redesign the Ubuntu installer (also known as Ubiquity) into something a little more in tune with our times. We've already told you in our latest report on Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) Alpha 4 that Ubiquity has now a "Quit" button during all the installation steps, so you can quit the installer at any time. Moreover, the time zone selection items have been changed a little to reflect the region/zone only, and not the city.
Today we will present, exclusively for our readers here at Softpedia, what the Ubuntu developers intend to add next in the Ubiquity installer. The package is called "ubiquity-slideshow-ubuntu" and it is designed to offer an Ubuntu-flavored slideshow for the Ubiquity installer. What this means? Those of you who installed Microsoft Windows XP or Mandriva Linux, or openSUSE already know what this slideshow is supposed to do. Long story short, it will display some content, every 20 seconds or so, especially created to introduce new users to the Ubuntu operating system, while installing it. Please take a look at the video clips below to see a mockup content for the Ubiquity slideshow. The second video was provided to us by Mads Rosendahl (MadsRH).
"The technology and design for our slideshow is now reasonably established, so it's time to polish up the content and get things rolling towards a release. There have been many good ideas about how to treat the content for the slideshow. Some different opinions on the writing style, the topics covered and the types of users who will be viewing this. So far, there is a lot of room for interpretation. It seems that the best way to get things rolling will be to lay out all the guidelines, thoughts and content in a reasonably equal fashion, all at once, and then DECIDE (preferably on something that is already done, since time is fairly critical here)." - said the developers.
The content that will be featured in the Ubiquity slideshow is still to be determined. For now, they divided it into two main categories:
1. Some simple text about various applications and what you can do with them; 2. Original content, with normal paragraphs, about the Ubuntu operating system and some included applications.
Both categories will include the following slides:
· Welcome message · Browse the web with Firefox · Relive Memories with F-Spot Photo Manager · Accessibility in Ubuntu · Ubuntu speaks fluently · Control your digital life with Evolution · Keep in contact with Pidgin IM · OpenOffice - Office tools at your fingertips · Watch and listen on Ubuntu · Installing additional software · Getting Help with Ubuntu
For more information about the content/paragraphs that will be displayed during a normal Ubuntu installation, please check here and here.
We will keep you updated with any other upcoming changes for the next release of the Ubuntu operating system, Karmic Koala, due for release in late October.
The YouTube clip in your article is the old design. I've uploaded a clip with the new one here (although the images will change for sure): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgUo6OTreuo
Comment #1.1 by: Marius Nestor on 19 Aug 2009, 10:39 GMT
Thank you!
Comment #1.2 by: cramleir on 19 Aug 2009, 13:42 GMT
I can't help but notice that Pidgin is on the slideshow and not Empathy, does that mean that they have changed their minds?
Comment #1.3 by: Marius Nestor on 19 Aug 2009, 14:10 GMT
I sure hope so :) Now that Pidgin has voice and video support.... (Jabber only, but it's a good start), it is possible to remain the default IM client for a long time.
Comment #2 by: Linux-user on 19 Aug 2009, 15:30 GMT
"Moreover, the time zone selection items have been changed a little to reflect the region/zone only, and not the city."
What's the reason to do this? Is it the same ridiculous reason why they removed the numbers of available updates in 9.04? "To make it more user friendly."
Why is removing information more user friendly? I always look at the city when configuring my time zone. I never know in which time zone I live. Is it GMT +01 or is it GMT -01? I really don't know and I don't need to know in which time zone I'm living and I don't care. I know in which country and which city I live, so why can't I just select the time zone by city, like it always worked?
Comment #3 by: Dylan McCall on 19 Aug 2009, 16:33 GMT
The latest is actually quite cool because it has a sliding transition instead of the usual crossfade effect. The video is a tad out of date :)
Thanks for the up to the second coverage, Softpedia!
Feel free to contribute any content ideas to that Wiki page, be they fixes for typos, new titles or new slideshows entirely (just so long as the look and technology can stay the same).
Linux-user: The city selector was pointless, because the system didn't really do anything with that information. (It COULD have done cool stuff for localization, granted, but it doesn't). Thus, trimming down the interface there means it only asks for information it actually uses.
Also, the city selector was a horrifying mess for usability. Not nearly enough cities were shown, and the old attempt to have enough shown involved a scrolling map, which was useless and unbearable to navigate. Sure, it's fixable (just copy Google and allow the user to select any lat / long coordinate), but why when all this thing does is set the clock?
Comment #3.1 by: Linux-user on 20 Aug 2009, 21:15 GMT
I just compared Alpha 3 and Alpha 4. In Alpha 3 you'd have to choose the city and in Alpha 4 you select the country. No problem for me. I thought it didn't show any city's or countries, but only the time zone in the format "GMT -01", "GMT +02". I thought, you'd had to know your time zone, but you can just select your country.
But how about very large countries which use more than one time zone? I can't test now, because Alpha 4 is busy installing and it's already past the time zone selection.
Comment #4 by: Dylan McCall on 19 Aug 2009, 16:39 GMT
Oh, sorry, one other thing :)
I forgot to mention that I really am hoping for some fresh new proposals on the UbuntuContent wiki page, here:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbiquitySlideshow/UbuntuContent
Feel free to toss ideas up there, after reading the simple directions of course. It's all fairly open-ended at this point, but we are also up against a stiff time limit.
The coolest installer I ever used was for the now defunct Lycoris Linux distribution. It let me play a game of solitaire while it installed. The info screens are nice the first time, but if you experiment constantly with software, and end up reinstalling all the time like I do, they get pretty boring. Most of my customers wouldn't dream of installing an OS, they pay me to do that. I don't need a slide show to promote applications I already know about.
Comment #6.1 by: yman on 26 Aug 2009, 05:21 GMT
You can do that a way more when installing from the LiveCD session instead of the istall-only session.
Comment #7 by: Jason Burns on 20 Aug 2009, 17:59 GMT
I hate to be the pessemist here, but why waste time redesigning the installer when the UI needs so much work to look "more with the times" The flat look, brown tones, it's not working anymore and anyone who looks at it next to Windows 7 or OS X will think it's a toy.
