The result of either method would be a set of browser-based installation screens that guide the user through the software installation process. The process would be tailored for each platform as necessary using differing pages but would have a consistent look and feel as much as possible. The installation pages would provide as much flexibility in the installation as required by the software vendors. Customer task models and supporting technology are currently under investigation. SD Setup will be designed to combine usability and cross-platform flexibility.
Details are still under discussion.
The result of the installation process is that the appropriate software is installed on the system per the user's choices during installation, and that a lightweight set of software management tools is installed on the system as well. Current SD Products and Prototypes Table 1 shows a summary of the different SD products, most of which were discussed in detail in this article. Debbie Ogden is a project manager at Hewlett-Packard currently responsible for the user interface framework for System Management applications. At the time this article was written in early 1997, she was an engineer on the Software Distributor project responsible for the user interface. Brian Costa is a software design engineer at Hewlett-Packard currently contributing to the Open View Software Distributor product family.