Re:CasaOS – A simple, easy-to-use, elegant open-source home ...
by LoganDark on Sunday April 16, 2023 @12:57PM
(#35591762)
> the easiest method for beginners
Why do people think this way? Honest question.
People create "installers" like these with the goal of making Just One Command that Does Everything For You, saying stuff like "easiest method for beginners". This is suboptimal for many reasons.
I don't want Just One Command that Does Everything For Me. I control the machine; I want to command it myself. This is one of Linux's main selling points. But even for people who don't think this way and just want to install your software quickly, I have concerns.
Providing this installer script as the only way to install your software distribution is actually setting people up for failure:
- Nobody knows how the script works, if it fails they have no way to debug what happened except grepping for log messages in the source code and guessing. At that point just read the whole script and do it manually.
- If the script isn't compatible with their setup, they can't just do the equivalent for their computer, because they might not even know what they need to do. And even if they do figure it out, how will they move on to the next step? They can't just re-run the script if it's not compatible with their setup, remember. Back to reading the whole script and doing it manually.
- The script performs arbitrary changes to their system configuration without asking, like updating repositories(!) and installing dependencies. That's not an OK thing for you to do without asking. And on some rolling-release distributions, like Arch, you never want to update repositories carelessly. Because, if the rest of the system's packages are left outdated after a repository update, they may no longer be compatible with the latest packages available upstream. But you update repositories, on Arch, without telling the user you did so. On Arch, one of the most active rolling-release distributions. So not only will the dependencies you install yourself not necessarily be compatible with the rest of the system—because Arch—random future package installs may also be screwed until the next full system upgrade. Which may never happen if the user never figures out what the problem is.
I sort of lost interest in installing the thing myself, so I never completed my personal audit, but I would recommend, at the very least, not installing packages or updating repositories without prompting first, and also publishing documentation on how to install this without running a fricken' shell script as root, which is not even an acceptable thing to teach "beginners" in the first place. They should be taught not to run things they don't trust, and definitely not to blindly run any shell script from any random website as root.
Sure, it may be 'easy' (for some definition of easy) for 'beginners' (for some definition of beginners) but please don't.
Why do people think this way? Honest question.
People create "installers" like these with the goal of making Just One Command that Does Everything For You, saying stuff like "easiest method for beginners". This is suboptimal for many reasons.
I don't want Just One Command that Does Everything For Me. I control the machine; I want to command it myself. This is one of Linux's main selling points. But even for people who don't think this way and just want to install your software quickly, I have concerns.
Providing this installer script as the only way to install your software distribution is actually setting people up for failure:
- Nobody knows how the script works, if it fails they have no way to debug what happened except grepping for log messages in the source code and guessing. At that point just read the whole script and do it manually.
- If the script isn't compatible with their setup, they can't just do the equivalent for their computer, because they might not even know what they need to do. And even if they do figure it out, how will they move on to the next step? They can't just re-run the script if it's not compatible with their setup, remember. Back to reading the whole script and doing it manually.
- The script performs arbitrary changes to their system configuration without asking, like updating repositories(!) and installing dependencies. That's not an OK thing for you to do without asking. And on some rolling-release distributions, like Arch, you never want to update repositories carelessly. Because, if the rest of the system's packages are left outdated after a repository update, they may no longer be compatible with the latest packages available upstream. But you update repositories, on Arch, without telling the user you did so. On Arch, one of the most active rolling-release distributions. So not only will the dependencies you install yourself not necessarily be compatible with the rest of the system—because Arch—random future package installs may also be screwed until the next full system upgrade. Which may never happen if the user never figures out what the problem is.
I sort of lost interest in installing the thing myself, so I never completed my personal audit, but I would recommend, at the very least, not installing packages or updating repositories without prompting first, and also publishing documentation on how to install this without running a fricken' shell script as root, which is not even an acceptable thing to teach "beginners" in the first place. They should be taught not to run things they don't trust, and definitely not to blindly run any shell script from any random website as root.
Sure, it may be 'easy' (for some definition of easy) for 'beginners' (for some definition of beginners) but please don't.