Wow ! I think you misunderstood : I wrote "main" applications, most important in every categories, not every one application in main and contrib. A presentation of Xine, mplayer in multimedia, etc... I never wrote "all applications in contrib".-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
Eric Fernandez wrote:
What do you need a "graphical database" for? Do you mean screenshots? Do you know how big a set of screenshots would be for all the applications in contrib? In some cases a single screenshot could be larger than the whole package!! IMHO you only need this if you are actually *selling* applications (like Lindows). It may be worthwhile for the proprietary stuff in MandrakeClub, but quite pointless for contrib, especially considering the rate at which screenshots get obsoleted ...
This would show new users the wide range of available softwares under Linux. Why not combining with an table of Windows equivalent applications, like on http://linuxshop.ru/linuxbegin/win-lin-soft-en/
What I am talking about comes from discussions with newbies on different forums : hardware.fr but also mandrakeclub. After repeating hundred times the same advices and guide, I guess I begin to have a clear idea of what newbies miss and ask for.
Anyway, this was not my main point. My main idea was not the database, but a graphical tour of rpmdrake, configuring source, and software search and management.
agreed, except the presentation by categories on HTML pages is also useful IMO.
rpmfind is also useless for the advanced user, who needs only urpmi.
I am not a jurist, but this may be a responsability problem for Mandrakesoft to link to pages that offer links to... etc... "illegal" softwares especially in the US with the DMCA.I don't see why there should be any restrictions. Instead, the urpmi media should carry a description of the repository, and any repository which has legal problems would be required to stipulate those in the description.
Debian and Mandrake have not the same goals and the same public. Mandrake is a company, it needs to make money, and this goes through promotion and marketing. Word of mouth is generally not sufficient for a company.Does Mandrake advertise any other tools more? No. There simply isn't much advertising budget, but they are well documented all over.
Does Debian advertise apt-get all the time? No. It's done by work of mouth.
I agree. It is why a page about "3D with Nvidia" showing step by step installation and configuration of drivers.
And for the NVidia drivers, all you need to do is setup the Club source, and run XFdrake, reselect the display card, and it will install the drivers and set it up for you.
So, this is how I suggest users do it, but some prefer to download the "latest and greatest", and follow the broken instruction in the documentation that come with them, and stuff up their XF86Config-4 file, and then complain that linux is too difficult ...
The only way to counter this is for people to give better advice ...
(BTW: ltmodem drivers can also be setup from Club in a similar way using drakconnect)
Almost every day on Mandrakeclub forum there is a post asking how to install those drivers, or that they have a black screen, and newbies are told each time to type XFdrake in the console.
Eric
