Trisquel lacks a fully functional installer / Trisquel text mode installer not GNU FSDG

Proyecto:Trisquel
Versión:7.0
Componente:Installer
Categoría:tarea
Prioridad:normal
Asignado:No asignado
Estado:active
Descripción

Current version of Trisquel has two installers, none of them fully functional:
-Graphic installer can work offline, but doesn't allow for a full disk encryption install.
-Text mode installer allows for a full disk encryption install, but cannot work offline.

I know that full disk encryption is not supported by a lot of computers, so this first issue is of limited importance.

The inability of the text mode installer to work offline, however, is a more serious matter. Online installers are a pest - they not only have their installation limited to networked computers, but also make you depend on the download servers, and that effectively limits the lifespan of installers to the time this service is on. Being a veteran sysadmin (in addition to developer), I ran into this issue for the first time with Internet Explorer 6. Microsoft chose to distribute an online installer for Internet Explorer 6, and that was annoying enough at the moment because network problems would be frequently encountered - but then became a huge problem years later, when the online installer stopped working because of Microsoft turning off the download service. This meant that when the need to set up a legacy system was encountered for whatever the reason, it would mean the start of a painful process until finding some kind of fix, like an offline installer. Trisquel does not need to be like Microsoft. I don't like the thought of a Trisquel installer having an expiration date. If I picture myself in the future having to install Trisquel 7.0 for whatever the reason, and having to do it with some special choice only available in the text mode install, I don't want to be left off. And yet I have to voice my biggest concert - Trisquel text mode installer might not only stop working in the future, it might stop working right now - as a matter of fact, as I write this, it is broken because of a package failing to download, as I have reported in another issue.

I suppose that there is a reason for Trisquel text mode installer to be like that, like working in computers with reduced RAM, or being minimalistic just for the sake of efficiency... but then, why is it that there's not an offline version? Perhaps the text installer was intended only as supplemental to the graphical installer... but then, why is it that the graphical installer is more limited than the text mode installer? The text mode installer is the only one that allows installing Trisquel with full disk encryption.

I claim the Trisquel text mode installer not to be GNU FSDG, because of not offering the four freedoms. Specifically, I claim it offers not the freedom 0, the freedom to be executed - because making you depend on an unguaranteeable service is incompatible with giving you freedom to execute it. Freedom requires self-sufficiency. Thus, the Trisquel text installer cannot be considered as GNU FSDG-compliant.