On Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 07:18:02AM +1100, Riley Baird wrote: > > It think that statements on the homepage and on the "why Debian?" pages > > like "Debian comes with over 37500 different pieces of software." are a
In https://www.debian.org/intro/why_debian "37500 different pieces of software" is linked to https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages which explain precompiled binary package. So this number should be binary packages. Other places https://www.debian.org/intro/about https://www.debian.org/ are like: Debian comes with over 37500 packages (precompiled software ... Here again is clearly binary packages. So we can not simply plug in source package numbers. > > bit misleading since newcomers will most likely interpret this as the > > number of software projects that are packaged within Debian. Counting > > the binary/non-source packages inflates the package count with > > debug/header/documentation packages. > > > > I think it would be more appropriate to put up a count of source > > packages. For example, in the Debian Administrator's handbook, there is > > the statement "Furthermore, with more than 17,300 source packages, the > > available software can meet almost any need that one could have, whether > > at home or in the enterprise" [1]. Let's see the fact. I downloaded current stable and jessie Sources.* files for main (=Debian without non-free). $ grep '^Package:' Sources.jessie.main|wc -l 20869 $ grep '^Package:' Sources.stable.main|wc -l 17165 Debian Administrator's handbook is right for the stable system. Please note Debian (not-like FreeBSD nor Gentoo) prides its distribution of binary as its main distribution focus. So listing source package number in such places miss the point. > To be honest, I don't think that it will affect the potential user's > decision much whether it says 37500 or 17300. I agree. If we ever update these, let's not clutter all of them. If we decide to update this to address this info, let's update only https://www.debian.org/intro/about and its diff should be more like: Debian comes with over 37500 packages (precompiled software that is bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine) + compiled from more than 17,300 upstream source packages, a package manager (APT), and other utilities that make it possible to manage thousands of packages on thousands of computers as easily as installing a single application. All of it free. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-www-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/20150224161020.GA8662@goofy.local
