Bugzilla – Bug 106035
UK language/keyboard setup confusing
Last modified: 2005-08-24 06:30:30 UTC
I like to use the UK setup because I'm Canadian and we use the British spelling usually. I use the US keyboard though. When I choose UK language YaST also chooses UK keyboard. In the past, I've changed this but with OpenSUSE, this isn't obvious that it's changing to UK keyboard since it appears in the secondary tab. I didn't even realize it had done this until I finished the install and found keys that didn't work correctly. My suggestion would be to put the keyboard back on the front or popup a message that warns those that choose UK language that UK keyboard is being assumed and telling them how to change that.
It is possible to put the keyboard layout to the first tab of the installation proposal. Andreas, do you want me to do it? And into which position? I'm afraid that the first tab gets crowded in the near future...
I prefer not - Klaus, what do you think?
We explicitly moved this out to the "expert" area to avoid confusion. This is clearly an expert option, not something to confront novice users with. This is why we now make a difference between simple and expert views - this request would defeat the purpose of that.
I don't personally see this as being confusing or clearly an expert option. Does every English-speaking country in the world except the US and Canada also use a UK keyboard? Another way to make this "simpler" is to give the option of Canadian English which would default to a US keyboard.
See, _you_ personally don't see that as confusing. The great majority of our users does.
Many Canadians are going to be very confused after they do the install and can't figure out why their keyboard is wacky! :) Why not just give the second option I mentioned - add Canadian English with default US keyboard? It's simple yet still does what we'd expect?
Adding another language is not as trivial as it might seem. For Canada, should it be en_US or en_UK? Whatever we choose, lots of people will complain. How many Canadians prefer en_UK over en_US? Can the others simply be ignored? I don't think so. And no, we really don't want en_CA_UK vs. en_CA_US or something like that. There has to be a limit somewhere. ;-) If you select en_UK, you should be aware that that affects other settings, too - such as the keyboard. Then of course you have to change the keyboard. But this is no longer the mainstream user's case.
I had thought in most areas that as Canadians we use the British English spelling but have since discovered that's not the case. I absolutely hate the American spelling of some words even though it does make more sense in many cases. But you're correct, it is more involved - I just hadn't realized that then.