On Sun, 24 Jan 1999, Marcus Brinkmann wrote: > On Sat, Jan 23, 1999 at 08:51:25PM +0000, thomas lakofski wrote: > > OK, since it seems that this kind of thing will probably only happen in a > > commercial context, maybe it would make sense to arrange commercial > > sponsorship of Debian in a bigger way. > > I think the first part of your sentence is a bit unfair. To make > installation easier requires hard work. If it would be easy, it would have
I understand the difficulty of the task -- I think it's also fair to say that because it's not the most glamourous of tasks it might be easier to attract developers to do it with some funding. > been long done. The trick is to keep flexibility (and don't tell me SuSE is > flexibel). Doing it easy for the newbie and configurable for the experienced > user requires a well though out configuration and administration system. At > least for multi-installation this is currently developed on the > debian-admintool list. It's certainly possible to have ease and flexibility -- the install can ask you as its' first question whether you want a 'typical install' or 'custom setup'. Since there is no typical install really, some simplified choice of roles could be presented -- say Desktop, Intranet Server or Internet Server. Custom setup could then be left as flexible as necessary. > Hardware autodetection would be another good thing, but only if implemented > well and reliable. This does only work with open hardware specifications. > > It's not the lack of interest, but the lack of real, skilled contributions > in this area, which addresses all concerns. Certainly -- again, maybe it would be easier to attract skilled developers with some sponsorship. > Needless to say that any contribution is welcome, be it from volunteers or > commercial organizations. But let's not drag Debian too deep into agreements > with commercial contributors. If you can convince a company to write a good > installation procedure, I am sure nobody will neglect it, provided it is > technically convincing. Debian does make decisions on technical grounds, and > I would not like to see this changed. I was thinking that the contributions would be financial (rather than code) to existing developers (or similarly-minded new ones) so that they could concentrate more on Debian development and still be able to earn a living. rgds, -tl ...... please forgive my abrupt ending hre - but my conection is xtrememleyyhiclmelyey BAD hiccuppy etc must sign off - EF D8 33 68 B3 E3 E9 D2 C1 3E 51 22 8A AA 7B 98