[Dustin Harriman] > 1) Package descriptions should tend towards readers like grandma by > default (ie. are as general as possible by default), and
What about the majority of packages in Debian? You know, the ones your hypothetical ancestor would never wish to install explicitly, under any circumstances? The ones whose purpose she will never understand or see a need for on her system, even if you use very large type? Whatever is wrong with the very simple concept of "if you don't understand what this does, don't install it"? There is no need for dumbing down descriptions for things non-technical users aren't going to be selecting anyway. The set of packages whose descriptions your geriatric relative needs to be able to understand is a very small subset of Debian. It would even be a very small subset of Ubuntu. So I'd suggest concentrating on the 3% of packages non-technical users might actually want to select manually, and making sure those have legible and searchable descriptions.
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