I was thinking the same thing! Too funny. Haiku, the bike shed OS.
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I have had similar thoughts before. Should we just go ahead and do this? It should be relatively unobtrusive, I think, since if you don’t want to take the tour, you can just close Web+ of course.
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I would hide Deskbar in same time, so their first task would be to find it. And since there will be nothing obvious to do, they wouldn’t be tempted to bypass the tour.
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I think instead we should ask the user at the end of the install wether they want to view the quick tour now. Not on first boot.
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Normally, when you boot an installation USB stick, only the Installer auto-launches after setting language and keymap. Neither Tracker nor Deskbar is running. I imagine many would like to experiment alongside the Quick Tour. Therefore I think showing the QuickTour after the first boot after installation would be better.
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A new installation should be „fresh“, that is not popping up stuff all the time.
We already have a bad precedent with haikudepot asking to collect data immidiently on launch, the uneccesary notification about generating ssh keys and so forth.
We should not add even more stuff to this.
The „Try out Haiku“ ‘mode‘ of the install already gives a way to try out the system.
Closing the installer and starting deskbar+tracker would not be too hard, in addition to the quicktour, in the install medium
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Very well then.
ETA: I wonder why the system needs to be rebooted after installation. Is it to make sure the user doesn’t begin to work and data and settings may be lost when they finally reboot? Then this might not be the best way to go.
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Good question.
I wonder how feasible it would be to switch over to the new install directly.
Though then you don‘t know the new system is actually bootable, which currently is still a problem sometimes.
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To boot the actually installed system, and run from there. Otherwise you are still running on your USB drive (which would be OK, but slow) or DVD (which would be even slower, and also read-only).
Probably not easy, but doable if someone really wanted to put the effort. I think it would be kind of cool, but also not worth the time needed to make it work. I would instead work on making the boot process faster, because that saves time not only after the install, but also for all other boots. So even a few hundreds milliseconds there will add up.
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IMHO the tradeoff between “more things opening at first boot” and “more people actually going through the Quick Tour*” is more than worth it for onboarding newcomers.
An alternative to immediately popping up Quick Tour on first boot is to ask the user at that point if they have used Haiku before. Don’t ask directly if they want to go through the Quick Tour, as some people will dismiss this thinking that it won’t be necessary. Asking if someone’s used Haiku before is a more indirect and softer way to introduce the Quick Tour to newcomers.
To be clear, this has to happen only at first boot. Not always with a checkbox to disable it nor right after an install before the installed system has been booted. The mindset of a user is a bit different post-install vs. first boot:
Post-install
I want out of here! I want to go into the new install now!
First boot
Aw yeah, I’m in the new install and seeing what this system is like to use!
The mentality difference means that if asking for the Quick Tour is put right at the end of installation, people are more likely to skip it than if it were to happen upon first boot. Should be noted that not everyone will pick Try Haiku at the beginning, as some may prefer to just get a new install going then get a feel for it there; this is especially true if they want to install apps. log into websites, and other activity better suited for an installed system.
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Onboarding? Are we trying to sell a product?
How more annoying can you make an OS than popping up stuff a user didn‘t ask for?
This will lead to users not reading it even more, not having opened it will make it less likely they will find it in the future.
New users will have difficulties using Haiku, this is to be expected. No ammount of shoving stuff in peoples faces will change that, on the contrary the more you put there the more people get overloaded and confused.
Offering the quick tour as a choice after install is fine, forcing it on users is not.
even if they choose not to view the quick guide then they will now know it is available and choose to check it later if they wish go do so.
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If we can’t agree on immediately popping up Quick Tour, then at least just have Haiku ask at first boot if someone has used Haiku before (based on the reasons in my previous post).
It’s just a word, mate. Introduce or a longer combination of words could’ve been used in its place, but onboarding is just a common term for this.
Terminology aside, a bit of annoyance in the beginning is most certainly worth avoiding the various others encountered throughout the rest of someone’s time with a system. Yes, difficulties are expected for anything new but putting a guide front and centre from the start helps ease newcomers in.
Can only speak from anecdotal and personal experience here, but popping up a guide at first boot is not as annoying as it may seem to certain folks. A lot of people will just close a window, without a second thought; nothing can be done about them. Another bunch of folks will actually read what’s in a window before closing it; these are the people who could benefit the most from a guide at first boot.
For the sake of returning users, I’m fine with just asking if someone’s used Haiku before:
Open Quick Tour if No/similar, close dialog (presumably) if Yes.
But it has to be at first boot, no other time.
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Just have it display one after post-install boot, that’s it. Also add some sort of release highlights.
These are very common, and I enjoy seeing a well-cared info for new or updated software.
This is not intrusive or something. It’s professional.
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But it has to be at first boot, no other time.
Open Quick Guide after reboot
No. Do not leave it to the user.
Yeah, the checkbox should be enabled by default.
Too easily missable, especially if someone really wants to get into a new install now. For returning users this would barely be any different from just opening the Quick Tour at first boot anyways, which at least nephele has vehemently spoken out against here.
I have never seen this document, so I fixed the script so it would run (missing “then” on line 17) and had a look.
I think you’re dreaming if you think everyone sitting in front of their first Haiku session is going to work their way through that, and in view of that I suspect you’re just adding a nuisance. It’s a well done document, so it’s good to have it right there and I expect I’ll get back to it in the not too distant future, but the first thing for a new user is to get used to Webpositive. (“Why doesn’t my Page Down button work?”) The Quick Tour is right there, you can easily guess what it’s for and why you might want to read it. And when.
If you think this is the case, then Quick Tour needs to be made more concise. Any suggestions for doing so?
Bah.
I hate sh, it‘s too easy to get something accidentally wrong. My bad.
Do you want to submit this as a fix? If not I‘ll make a review.