Comment 8 for bug 147928

From my experience of using gentoo I have mixed feelings about Omegamormegil's suggestion. On the one hand it should install a system in working order, while giving the user the option of bringing back what works well from their previous configuration. On the other, it will mean that the user is presented with a huge number of decisions to make. I only ever knew how to deal with the choices etc-update presented with me with because I was an experienced nerd. And even then my decisions ended up being based on hunches rather than a precise understanding of what was going on. For someone who isn't confident with computers this would be a serious barrier. Add to this how time-consuming this process could be and you will start to have some seriously anxious users.

I suspect there is scope for refining Omegamormegil's suggestion in some way, for instance by screening out trivial decisions or by offering suggestions.

As for diffs, they should not be displayed unless the user specifies that s/he wants to see them. They would make users feel that it was expected of them to understand config files and scripts they don't understand.