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AutoInstall is for experts, not beginners!

Note: J'ai écrit ce texte pour les groupes de discussion 
internationaux, mais je ne poursuivrai cette discussion ici qu'en
français.

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I installed Gnome 6.1 last weekend. Everything went well until 
the menu driven installation refused to install the server 
(driver?) for my Mach32 video card. I then had to go to the 
prompt.

What a nightmare to work at the prompt when you don't know even 
know about mounting! The book, with its very brief explanation 
of "mount" and "umount" was no help. I had to call a friend.

So, I figured out that a beginner would be much better of 
building his system manually. You know, mkdir /dev, /mnt, /cdrom, 
whatever...

Once the kernel is installed, Emacs could be opened with 
instructions in a top window and the prompt or the file to edit 
at the bottom. Instructions could be formatted in HTML so that 
if you were installing a second IDE drive from a CD, you 
wouldn't have to find your way through SCSI installation from 
ftp. You'd read just what you need.

And IMHO, the HOWTO are a pain in... the red neck. All I need 
for information is, e.g.  "mtab means mounted tab. Here appears 
the list of mounted devices". That's clear enough to me for the 
time being.

The configuration files seem pretty easy to edit as there are 
tags just as in HTML files, kind of «PutTheHorizontalFrequencyHere=""»
So what's the difference between entering the frequency of a 
monitor in a text file or in a graphic interface, mainly if 
you're given the right instructions?

Had Suse's automatic installation worked neetly, I would still 
feel it's not the way to go. Sooner or later, you have to look 
under the hood and if you have no practical knowledge of your 
system, you're in for a rough time reading books. 

Autoinstalling Linux is like putting a nice body around a 
Ferrari's mechanics and giving the keys to John Doe saying 
"You just press the gas pedal and it moves forward."

Whereas an expert might save time using autoinstall, it's most 
certainly a waste of time for a beginner. If there's a 
distribution like the one I'm describing here, please advise me.

Gilles Pelletier