Hi Andrei, I'm the one who wrote much of the stuff under /CD/, so it's all my fault... ;) Thanks for the remarks. I've read through the thread at <http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2006/03/thrd4.html#01511>, here are some comments on it and your mail:
On Mon, Apr 10, 2006 at 11:09:34PM +0300, Andrei Popescu wrote: > They seem not to be aware of the arguably greatest feature of Debian: its > packaging system. Being used to other OSes or distros, they don't realize > that they can install a full Debian with only the netinstall CD and > upgrade to the next release in place. The page that is supposed to tell people about this is <http://www.debian.org/CD/> - the first bullet about netinst CDs tries to tell people that they do not need the full CDs. IMHO it is pretty clear - any ideas on how to improve it? In <http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2006/03/msg01524.html>, Chris Lale makes a similar point: > You certainly have to plough your way through the Debian website to > understand what you need to do. A prominent "How to get started with > Debian" page might work. Just short and sweet, but explaining all the > different ways of getting a system set up - buying CDs, downloading > (jigdo), burning isos, net install, etc. ...but that page exists, it is /CD/ :-| TBH, sometimes my impression is that users first download *everything* they can get their hands on and only then start to actually read the website. Andrei Popescu wrote: > I can imagine this might have scared off many potential new users. Some > info like: "For a typical Desktop install you need CD1 and 2" would be > the least to provide. True - at the moment, it is only explained in an entry of the CD FAQ. Hmm, what do you think, maybe I should provide a link to the FAQ entry on each of the pages /CD/jigdo-cd/, /CD/torrent-cd/ and /CD/http-ftp/ ? In <http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2006/03/msg01556.html>, Andrei Popescu wrote: > A quick peak at debian-cd shows that there are discussions about having a > Desktop install with as few CDs as possible. This is the development > part. The site developers should present this accordingly. Something > like: "For a Desktop install you need at least CD1 and 3". This is a bit difficult in practice. "Desktop install" means different things to different users ("What - no application XYZ? You suck!"). Furthermore, a notice about this wouldn't be that simple because it would have to distinguish between stable and testing images. Finally, the testing images change too frequently - if the information in such a notice were too exact, it would also become outdated too quickly. I think the fairly general "you probably only need the first two CDs" from <http://www.debian.org/CD/faq/#which-cd> is about as definitive as we can get ATM. :-/ In <http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2006/03/msg01565.html>, Neil Dugan wrote: > Another thing that might be handy is to have a web form with the major > packages on it that you can tick off to get a list of iso files needed to > install those packages. Something similar to this is available (though admittedly somewhat hidden) via <http://www.debian.org/CD/jigdo-cd/#search>. However, it only works for individual packages, not tasks. It would be tricky, but not impossible, to implement the task-based version you seem to envision. From time to time, I toy with the thought of a general download form which also helps you pick the right mirror. This is made difficult/impossible by the incomprehensible restriction of having no scripts on www.d.o. :-\ Also, I do not have the time/energy to implement it, someone else will have to do it. In <http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2006/03/msg01831.html>, Andrei Popescu wrote: > Or maybe use jigdo to build your own CD-set according to task and/or > individual package selections? That way lies madness IMO! This can go wrong in too many ways, we would have to support a million different CD variants, users' problems with individual images would be difficult to track down, there'd be big confusion of what a "Debian CD" actually is etc... people should just use the netinst CD which contains a nice installer to guide them through the package selection process! [Besides, jigdo cannot really do what you suggest.] Cheers, Richard -- __ _ |_) /| Richard Atterer | GnuPG key: 888354F7 | \/¯| http://atterer.net | 08A9 7B7D 3D13 3EF2 3D25 D157 79E6 F6DC 8883 54F7 ¯ '` ¯
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