Hi [big snip]
>> Because, if some newbie enters debian.org, interested in debian for >> powerpc, he will first get trough to the ports pages (if he knows what >> ports mean), then > > exactly what happened to me > >> to powerpc, and finally to install, where he will be presented a list which >> is (more or less) completely outdated. Searching for my TiBook I will end >> up with, oh, does not seem to be supported. Hmm, ok, which distro is next >> on my evaluation list, uhhm, ok, lets go to www.redhat.com... > > yup also looking at: >> I assumed that he also has been looking at the debian port pages, where he >> saw an outdated model list, and so got to think that the port is no longer >> maintained. That's all. > > > That was part of it, yes. But most of it had to do with the fact that > using the NIC in my PPC machine freezes the system (as well as using the > CD/Floppy/SCSI CD-ROM, something I want to look into in the coming months), > so my ill-advised dist-upgrade to woody left my system all screwed up, even > though the upgrade appeared to work okay. (Well, I did have to reboot >10 > times before apt decided it was done downloading packages.) When I went to > find the missing packages, they weren't in dists/ either -- I guess they've > been moved to pool/, something I hadn't paid much attention to -- I haven't > needed to. > > Anyway, I do think Debian's PPC docs could use some care, but I'm not > much of a case study. My PM5400 is an pretty psychotic case.... by Joseph Fannin we have at least two individuals who encountered these problems. >> So, thats fine, but there should be at least an up-to-date list available >> (listing only debian releases) on the debian website, where one not has to >> first search for the testing install-manual (which is not obvious) to get a >> breakdown of the current models. >> >> Well, if something like this would be useful and is desired I would maybe >> volunteer to maintain such a page. >> > > I certainly think it'd be valuable. I will soon repost a summary on debian-www but I am not having the time for it today anymore. >> BTW: I could also be thinking of something like a form-to-mail survey page >> with buttons for all powerpc models, release, boot-floppies and a button >> with the option running/not running, where newbies could report the status >> of their systems, so, if its running on their specific piece of hardware or >> not. With the help of this form, we could provide status info about >> machines who are not yet tested with the various debian releases. > > I had this idea too, but don't know how hard it would be to implement. Hmm, form-to-mail shouldn't be that hard to implement. The only thing which is lacking is direct response to the user. > it seems like even if it just collects the information and dumps it in a text > file somewhere, then someday someone could come along and make sense of it. Well, automatic text file parsing shouldn't be a problem. The only thing is, as already mentioned above, this parsing would be done e.g. once per day, with a following page update. So it is not that interactive. > Or, make it like a guestbook / poll type thing, where people can feel like > they're contributing just by weighing in; a place for comments and a way to > see the last 20 or so. As in, mivox.com/cgi-bin/tekbook.cgi . Why not. But this needs a cgi sitting on the server. And if we have a cgi we could also do some cool polling stuff with immediate response. But that's harder to code, though I do not have any experience with cgi's at the moment. Hello to all cgi coders outthere?!! But I think these kind of discussions we should really move over to debian-www. -- Best regards, Andi
