On Wed, Dec 07, 2016 at 08:59:53AM +0100, Ole Streicher wrote: > But it also gives a wrong sign: Debian Pure Blends are by definition > integral part of Debian itself. But even now, this is hard to understand > for many people -- questions like "what is the difference between Debian > Astro and Debian" are quite common, even in front of a poster describing > exactly that. With having separate official images for all blends, > people would even be more confused. As an example, I would take the > Ubuntu approach of having "Ubuntu", "Kubuntu", "Xubuntu" etc. instead of > installation options -- people usually think that they have to > re-install the system if they want to switch from one flavour to the > other. Having similar experience with Debian would be bad for the > reputation of the Blends, and for Debian in general.
I don't agree with this argument. Yes, indeed, in Ubuntu people often don't know that they don't really need a reinstall to go from Kubuntu to Xubuntu (or whatever), but is that really a problem? It's certainly *easier* for users to understand that if they want X, Y, or Z, they just need to install from the X, Y, or Z image. We can present them with a message at the end of the installation, or add some documentation, or whatever, to the effect that switching from one "type" of Debian to another doesn't require a reinstall; but even if that's what people end up doing, so what? I don't see the problem -- and it *would* make this problem go away, since you lose the need for the tasksel menu entirely. After all, Ubuntu isn't the only distribution anymore which ships several images; these days, if you want to install Fedora, you have to choose between a "workstation", "server", or "atomic"/"cloud" image. It seems to work for them. I don't buy that presenting users with a choice of image to download "confuses" them, when it in fact *takes away* a very confusing menu from the installer. I think it's going to be obvious to people that if you download, say, a Debian Med image, you're going to have a different experience than if you download a "plain vanilla" Debian image; and that's *certainly* going to make things easier for Debian Med users, too. Just my 2ยข. -- < ron> I mean, the main *practical* problem with C++, is there's like a dozen people in the world who think they really understand all of its rules, and pretty much all of them are just lying to themselves too. -- #debian-devel, OFTC, 2016-02-12