instantARCH
A user friendly minimal installer for instantOS
instantARCH is a super lightweight quick & easy to use installer for instantOS.
Features
- Ask all user input before installation
- Graphical and command line interface
- Lightweight
- Easy to use
- Netinstall that stays pretty close to Arch
Usage
instantARCH is preinstalled on all instantOS iso files (duh) and can be launched through the welcome app or the widget in the top right.
It can also be run as a command line application on a vanilla arch live disk.
bash <(curl -L instantos.io/install)Comparison with other installers
Why did instantOS go for a custom installer instead of just using what's out there? To be clear, all of the installers below are fine pieces of software and I do not want to talk anyone out of using them. This comparison just lists the reasons why they aren't used by instantOS and the advantages that instantARCH has over them that make it fit for the project.
Architect
Architect might seem similar at first glance but you quickly realize that it is made for people who would have been capable of installing arch the arch way anyway. The level of knowledge required is almost the same and has the same room for error. It has the possibility of executing a step twice, erasing the progress of other steps and you can absolutely end up with a non-bootable system. All of these things would be pretty big flaws for a normal setup wizard (which architect is not trying to be which makes it unfit for instantOS).
Calamares
Calamares is probably the project closest to being fit for instantOS. The user experience is clear and straight forward, all user input is asked for before the installation and it can well be used even by people without a lot of experience. It is still not used over instantARCH for several reasons: The hardware requirements are above those of the OS itself meaning it would prevent installation on machines that are well capable of running the OS. It is also far more complex under the hood, meaning extending it with more functionality would be a substantial amount of work. Finally only amd64 is officially supported, porting instantOS to other architectures (which is planned) would mean leaving the official support of Calamares developers.