Subject: Re: bug#35604: Is the top bootloader entry for previous generations the current one?

From: Tobias Geerinckx-Rice <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 06 May 2019 20:52:26 +0200

Florian,

pelzflorian (Florian Pelz) wrote:
> GRUB’s boot menu displays a menuentry for booting the current
> generation and a submenu with entries for previous generations.
> However, it is not clear if the generation at the top of the 
> submenu
> is the current generation or if it is one generation before.

The current generation is by definition not a previous one and 
shouldn't appear in the ‘previous’ list, but I see how it could be 
confusing.  Especially once possible language barriers and 
translations are added to the mix.

> I would prefer to resolve this by displaying the current 
> generation’s
> generation number and date outside the submenu as is done for 
> the
> previous generations in the submenu.

It makes for an uglier boot menu, which sounds silly, but I've 
noticed that the more numbers and symbols are on a screen, the 
more likely ‘non-geeks’ are to ignore the whole thing as something 
not meant for them to understand.  Especially a black one :-)  I 
see it as part of GNU's values to counter that attitude.

How about changing ‘previous generations’ to ‘all generations’, 
and have it include the current generation at the top (now with # 
and date, maybe ‘(current)’ appended)?

That way we can keep the default nice and friendly and skimmable 
in ~5s, and the overview is actually a complete overview.

Kind regards,

T G-R