Regarding the debian system Willie Daniel thought out loud: > I've been watching the debates about Cds, dividing up non-free, and etc.. > And I had a few thoughts I wanted to throw out at everyone. > > I think if debian is going to succeed, it's going to have to be reduced > to a standard set of "core" applications that will make up the "offical" > distribution of debian. Right now, the distribution is huge and it's > getting bigger.
IMHO that creates not much of an issue. It just creates the need for a second silver dish. This appears inevitable anyway, considering the architectures linux is currently being ported to. Who knows, maybe debian linux 1.5 developers resource will be a 6 cd set and the slackware97 fans will complain that there's no mention of their favorite distribution in the inside leaflet ;-) > In the process, it seems less is getting done in the way of > providing comprehensive testing, marketing, etc.. of each new release. > Many people are handling multiple packages and getting either burnt out > or don't have enough time to adequatly test the packages they do maintain. That is an orthogonal issue, but I must agree that there's a sense of reality in your observation of a problem. > While I understand and applaud the basic concepts behind Debian, it's > success will depend on what the commercial community does with it. I guess that that's not an issue at all. > Therefor, I think the following needs to be done to help Debian get > going in the right direction. > > 1) I realize this process will start a religious debate over what > program is the best, but, someone ( everyone? ) needs to decide > on the core packages that will make up the offcial distribution. > ie.... smail, sendmail, qmail, etc. which one will debian choose > as the default for the distribution? There have been some things said about this with respect to dselect. IMHO if there should be anything like a "core distribution", it would have to be a system that is minimally confusing to new users. All the other packages are just packages and are equal part of the debian system. I think debian should anticipate more and more packages will appear, each providing more or less the same functionality. > in the case of user apps, one application could be choosen that > works on terminals and one that works in X. ( where possible ) > ie.... users will need a mail reader. > for terminals: elm > for X: exmh Now, I see we agree :-) Just take that idea all the way. > this will create a standardized distribution that commercial vendors > can easily support. it will reduce greatly the size of the main > distribution and will allow devlopers to focus on just the applications > that make up the offical distribution plus allow easier beta testing > of the distribution as a whole. I dear to disagree again, but think that the point you raise at 4) would make sense here > some things, like games, should definatly not be part of the > offcial distribution. while i dearly love xtetris, you can't consider > it a necessity. Disagree again!! My dad once upgraded to a 486 to run windoze to play minesweeper.. > 2) Everything else could be moved over to contrib. [snipped a bit here, your point covered at 1) and 5)] > 3) revamp the web pages. its the first place a user might check for info > on debian and they look really bad right now. ( i know this has > already been discussed ) Some point here. But IMHO bad is a big word. At least there's no ad's or animation. > 4) open up the release dates a bit. last i heard, the push was for 3 month > cycles. open it to 6 months. while those who want to stay on the > cutting edge can do so, some people and most companies want stabilty. > this is one area i don't have a clear understanding of. > alot of people were excited about the release of "slackware96" but > the release of debian 1.2 came and went. weird. Here's a good point. However, ensuring that the "minimal" system is stable at every release, while alowing some packages to have bugs in some installations is IMO quite tolerable. New users should be be able to get running to the point that they can start reading man pages and documentation and learn to configure some things on their own. If you really want to run ip-masquerading, you'd have to have some experience and wouldn't be so easily blown away by a small bug in a package. > 5) the quest for a debian logo has produced some really good work from > users of debian. i think a similiar push should be made for > debian documentation. i know there are some debian users out there > who are good at writing and debian could use some really well written > FAQs, installation procedures, HOWTOs, etc... Now here you've got my support! IMHO this should be a area of major concern for everybody using debian. It is my impression that the debian system is primarily centered around upgradability. Providing a ready-to-run-point-and-drool-game-os is another end of the spectrum, but if: i) a decent minimal startup and ii) good documentation to get going is offered, lots of new users can be pulled into the linux boat, and learned to row and steer for themselves. Obviously, some of these people will have to become package maintainers one day, if debian is going to keep up. Another idea is to have maintainer groups, as this might take the pressure off individuals currently maintaining packages and also provide means to get new people experienced in maintaining packages. Just my 2 kbytes, Joost -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
