I believe the install documents need to be more user centric. I've said this before, but it's worth highlighting now that I've had some time to think more about it.
Although there are many pages in the install documents, any one installation uses maybe 15% of it, with the remaining instructions having to do with platforms that do not concern the trial installer. Filtering through these various versions is a real hassle; I still get confused by them sometimes.
Perhaps we should explore re-arranging the installation docs to something like this:
1. Description of an installed system with no platform specifics, ie. a summary.
2. Generic install instructions for a unix system, including description of a reference platform
2.a notes for installing on a RedHat linux system
2.b notes for installing on a SuSE linux system
2.c notes for installing on a Debian linux system
2.d notes for installing on a FreeBSD system
2.e notes for installing on a Solaris system
2.f quick loading demo knoppix
3. Generic install instructions for a MacOSX system, including description of a reference platform
3.a notes for installing on a X 10.3
3.b notes for installing on a X 10.2
3.c notes for installing on a X 10.1
4. Generic install instructions for an MSWindows system, including specifics of a reference platform
4.a notes for installing on an XP
4.b notes for installing on a Windows2000 platform
4.c notes for installing with VMware
That way, installation amounts to following recipe instructions for a particular platform, and if there is a problem, more help is immediately available by comparing with a reference platform description.
I will gladly help with this.