[Tsiklon]

The partitioner would be absolutely fine were the system i was using intended to be a single OS machine. but mine isn't.

My issues with it are from a HCI perspective;

- the Done button is context sensitive which is rubbish.

   - Select Automatically Configure Partitioning and it will go back to the Installation summary

   - Select "I Will configure Partitioning" it will go into the partitioner.

- There is no Cancel button to discard all changes instead you have to go into the partitioner and hit the refresh button

- The Available space is across all disks not on a per disk basis.

- It's not immediately clear whether the plus or minus buttons in the partitioner will create partitions, delete partitions, or adding them to the installation selection.

[gmluke]

I agree with all these criticisms. The anaconda installer, particularly the partitioning interface, is not at all intuitive. The first time I installed Fedora alongside an existing OS I thought it was really likely something would get messed up.

Debian's installer is excellent, in my experience.

[Tsiklon]

In my opinion; of all the sections in an Operating System's installation program the partitioner should be the least vague of all.

At every step of the partitioning/volume management process you should be able to quickly undo or back out of your selection. only when the user is happy with the structure or layout should any change be committed, likewise there should be no ambiguity in the functionality of any aspect of it's operation.

After all it is your data you may be potentially blowing away.

It's been a while since I last installed Debian, so I can't comment on the installation experience there though I can't recall running into any issues. It was a perfectly forgettable experience. The Ubuntu installer was also excellent, and the partitioning aspect was both clean and clear when creating a custom setup.