New Debian Installer

I’ve spent a lot of time today installing Debian boxes and testing build documents. After using both the old and new installers (Sarge installer RC2) I’ve come to a bundle of conclusions. The new installer hides a lot of the complexity from most users (use expert mode to get it back). It has a better screen for per-partition options (although it does make you do each one on a separate screen) and it flows a lot better.

On the downside we have the need to set each partitions options on a separate screen (I mentioned it twice as it’s a pain), the lack of a “wipe all data but save partition table” option and, most importantly, in expert mode IT PROMPTS FOR PCCARD EVERY SECOND BLOODY SCREEN. And it drove me nuts. After asking me almost a dozen times about the PCCARD it then picked up that the machine wasn’t a laptop and asked if it could remove the PCMCIA packages. GAH!