Usability Report for the Debian Installation Process

Speakers: Giuliana Bouzon & Anthony Nadeau & Tássia Camões Araújo

Track: Packaging, policy, and Debian infrastructure

Type: Long talk (45 minutes)

Room: Ponmudi

Time: Sep 16 (Sat): 11:30

Duration: 0:40

My talk explains the process and the results from a usability test of the Debian installer. The goal of this test was to find out how usable the installer is for a variety of users with different levels of experience. In the report, we compared the installation process with other popular distributions (Tails, Ubuntu, and Fedora) and with the Calamares Installer from a Bookworm live image. We aimed to use the results of the study to establish in what ways the Debian installer as well as related Debian documentation could be improved to give users a better experience.

This talk covers the different sections of installing Debian, such as, downloading the ISO, the steps to verify it, flashing a USB key, and the actual process of installation that follows. It also uncovers the different challenges encountered by users.