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Ubuntu Considering an HTML5-Based OS Installer (phoronix.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Ubuntu's Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life, Mark Shuttleworth, is considering backing a new Ubuntu installer that would be using HTML5 via the Electron Framework. This theoretical installer would re-use the company's existing HTML5 code for managing MAAS installations, integrate with Electron, and also better support their Snap packaging format, according to his proposal. What could possibly go wrong with an HTML5/Electron operating system installer? Mark also announced that Ubuntu 18.10 is codenamed the Cosmic Cuttlefish.

18 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Cool! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope it has jQuery. It's the best!

  2. and i say to myself by bobmajdakjr · · Score: 4, Funny

    i wish the live cd/usb booted slower its just not slow enough. thisllfixit.

    1. Re: and i say to myself by Stormwatch · · Score: 2

      I still prefer installing from optical media. It's so handy. You just burn it and write "System ABC, release XYZ" - done. You know what it is from a glance, there is no doubt. And it's there forever, whenever you need it. If you use a flash drive, you go: "okay, which one had Windows, which one had Linux, which one had my documents... is it still there or did I reuse this drive for something else... now I have to download the system and prepare a new boot drive again... and how do I do that when my computer's installation is fucked in the first place..."

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
  3. For servers the text mode one is best GUI one is l by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    For servers the text mode one is best GUI one is limited in choice now the redhat/centos and suse GUI ones are a lot better.

  4. Not Invented Here by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 2

    It seems like this is just another example of NIH syndrome made manifest. Who needs something to be functional when you can have original, fancy and slow?!

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  5. Sounds Awesome! by darkain · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In theory, HTML5 based installer sounds awesome. The core system management would still be the same, just a few shell commands initiated from JavaScript within a minimalistic browser environment...

    But then I looked into what this "Electron" framework actually is, and who's using it for what.

    1) Skype - buggy as fuck
    2) GitHub Desktop - clunky as fuck
    3) Atom Editor - slow as fuck
    4) WordPress - need I say more..?
    5) Slack - too many issues to even name any
    6) Discord - known for literally blue-screening computers
    7) Visual Studio Code - classic VS was amazing, why fuck up a good thing?

    I'm all for rapid development within HTML5 + JS + CSS, but PLEASE, for the fucking love of god, use tool sets that don't have such a horrendous reputation!?

    1. Re:Sounds Awesome! by sirber · · Score: 2

      Visual Studio Code is amazing and fast compared to Atom.

      --
      Be or ben't
    2. Re:Sounds Awesome! by Junta · · Score: 2

      The main thing is that electron means everyone has a distinct browser process. It eschews OS platform provided facilities and as such has to reinvent the wheel and resource sharing between applications is pretty well defeated.

      Beyond that, there's the *tendency* for these developers to be sloppy and stop at 'mostly works'. This is not to say you cannot make a solid application with these tools, just that a lot of people who cannot otherwise manage to produce desktop applications can *appear* to succeed with this set of tools, even when they have behaviors where it should really be failing.

      The last thing I'l mention is lack of a 'standard' GUI application type behavior. People work with it and yes, css styled spans and divs make for a much more efficient remote drawing sort of protocol than other available options, but the APIs to do usual desktop application stuff are fragmented and ever evolving without ever being embraced in a broader standard (the broader standard continues to focus on the mission of semantically meaningful document markup).

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    3. Re:Sounds Awesome! by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Kids these days
      Part of ANSI standards is terminal emulation standard.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  6. So? by c · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He's talking about replacing Ubuntu's configuration/install engine with... a different configuration/install engine. It's fundamentally just a big script that gathers input from the user and punts the results to a bunch of other scripts and applications to do the actual install magic.

    Other than the people maintaining it, who really gives a shit what language/framework it's built with?

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    Log in or piss off.
  7. Cue to complain about JS by Daneel+Olivaw+R.+ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I understand that Javascript is evil/slow/only for soyboys and "real" programmers use QT (or some other equivalent hell)... but remember thanks to Electron, writing Desktop UI is no longer shitty, most of the heavy lifting for cross-platform is taken care of, and most importantly, developers get more time to do shit that matters. Yes, it does mean memory hungry programs, but thats an evil I can live with especially when I am getting something for free. P.S: I am allowed to make soyboy comment bec I am vegan

  8. Re:Working on actual improvements by afidel · · Score: 2

    Well, when I recently installed Ubuntu LTSR server I was timewarped back more than 20 years because the install process was exactly the same one I used to install Redhat Linux in the 90's. The CentOS installer on the other hand was very modern and user friendly. If you want to have the year of the Linux desktop having an installer that doesn't automatically turn off 99.9+% of users is probably a good idea.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  9. How about an installer with some added features? by ctilsie242 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Debian/Ubuntu's apt system has been good over the years, since it doesn't have the "rpm hell" RedHat based distributions have, especially if one has multiple repositories.

    It would be nice if they had the ability to roll back a version update without having to reinstall. AIX had this functionality, where if an update caused major problems, rejecting the update and rolling back was easy.

  10. Re:Alternatives? by 4wdloop · · Score: 2

    QT comes to mind...

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    A good one? Define 'good' in this context, please?

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    4wdloop
  11. Why? by ArchieBunker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just write the damn thing in Python or whatever language is hot at the moment. Use framebuffer graphics and a simple mouse driver like FreeBSD uses. How high up the abstraction layer can we go just to copy files to a storage device?

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  12. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  13. Cosmic Cuttlefish? by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I just can't wait for the Masturbating Monkey release!

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  14. HTML installer by Christian+Smith · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At my previous company, we used a Mozilla based installer front end. We used a cut down mozilla browser, without address bars or anything like that, which allowed easy UI creation for a wizard, embedded HTML online release notes, built in JS engine for customization at the product/package level, easily extended to interface with back end installers using XPCom. All in all, it was a great piece of work and very stable, this was 2004/2005.

    Then we were acquired by an unnamed big blue bohemouth, who didn't like the MPL, and moved us to one of their in-house installers (which was awful beyond words.) And just like that, it was gone.