Hi,
Suggestions:
1. Talk about specific features, not "configurability"
2. Talk about root problems and entertain multiple solutions to those problems, don't insist on having a particular solution before you've adequately characterized the goals.
More concrete conversations are much more useful.
If you talk in terms of user goals and the number of steps/amount of time to achieve those goals, it's much more productive than talking about the details of the UI.
A user goal is something like "have a machine containing an OS with only minimum necessary server packages"
Something like "have individual package selection" is a means not an end. So is anything that presupposes "the installer" - the whole installer is a means.
First get your ends, then find the best way to reach them.
The various UI books I've proposed reading are very helpful in describing a process for this kind of decision.
If you don't start with goals you're never going to be able to evaluate tradeoffs.
If you have the goal "have a machine containing an OS with only minimum necessary server packages" then you can make objective statements about number of mouse clicks, length of time, amount of knowledge, etc. involved in various means to achieve that goal.
Havoc