Wiki » Feature:Simplified installation

Summary

The huge difference between Windows and Linux that spread Windows all over the world is that you need to install Linux, whereas it is already done for Windows. Let's create a tool (an installer) which is able to install Mageia alongside Windows without asking any question.

(I noticed that many people buy a PC with Windows version n and never update it to n+1, when the PC is old/slow, they simply buy a new one with Windows n+x, it is their way to update).

Owner

• Name: Lebarhon
• Email: lebarhon@free.fr

Resources

Mostly dev, QA and doc.

Current status

• Targeted release: Mageia 6
• Last updated: 2025/05/11
• Percentage of completion: 0 %

Detailed Description

The biggest difficulty with Linux is to install it, it is that difficult because DrakX ask a lot of questions to the poor old fellow who is doing the installation:

• What is his/her keyboard, how many keys?
• What his/her language is, that is OK,
• What is a partition on a hard disk? Nobody knows in the real world,
• The partitions size? type? and so on...
• What means /? /home? /swap?
• How much space do I need?
• What are mount points?
• What are the differences between MB, GB, TB, MiB, ....
• What is a filesystem?
• What do you call BIOS, UEFI.
• What is a desktop environment?
• What is a password? Yes that is OK.
• etc.

So, the installer should ask only two questions:

• Choose your language
• Enter a password

That's all.

I think we could create a media aimed at the people who can't understand Linux (Windows either by the way) and aren't interested in learning it. This new installer could only ask for the language and a password. The rest is automatic.

• Keyboard -> the installer chooses according to the language, it is easy to change it afterwards if necessary.
• Partitioning -> The installer either use free space if over 50 MB is available, or shrink the Windows partition if not. Partition types and mount points are automatic. Nothing to ask.
• This new ISO image is only for dual boot with Windows 8 and over, that is UEFI.
• As it is for people coming from Windows, KDE is chosen by default. Maybe LXQt in case of little space.
• Only one password is asked, either the same for root and user or use sudo or I don't know, I rely on the dev :)

We could imagine that the media first starts like a Live and execute a script to test the hardware to be sure to write on the disk only when the installation is possible.

Why it would be good for Mageia to include it

Many people are afraid of Linux because of the installation. Mageia will be the only one everybody can install.

Test case

Anything useful for QA and all testers to help debugging during all development cycle

Software / Packages Dependencies

List of packages to be implied

Documentation

Include here any needed information or link to documentation