Re: [expert] GET READY FOR A DISCUSSION (fwd)
Another possibility for the future is to have a Stable | Normal | Cutting- Edge installation option. The "Stable" option would only install stable releases of the software, "Normal" would be the standard install, and "Cutting-Edge" would install the latest available releases - whether stable or not. (Of course, it is expected that Mandrake would use their discression appropriately when selecting unstable releases - while "unstable" may be OK, flakey would generally be unacceptable.) Brian. -- -- Brian Schroeder | ,-_|\ Origin Energy Resources Ltd | A great many open minds / \ Adelaide Australia | should be closed for repairs \_,-*_/ GPO Box 2576 Adelaide 5001 | v PH +61 8 8217 5782 | TOLEDO BLADE [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: [expert] GET READY FOR A DISCUSSION (fwd)
:~ I'd love to try out beta releases, but there's no way I'll be able to :~ download 600M of data reliably, so maybe :~ you want to have some sort of biweekly/monthly CD distribution for people to :~ try out. :~ :~ :~I currently offer this service already. Fine with us .-) And you are not the only one, there is a list of other folk who do it here: http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/cookerdevel.php3 cheers Denis -- - Dr. Denis Havlikhttp://www.ap.univie.ac.at/users/havlik Mandrakesoft||| e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Quality Assurance (@ @)(private: [EMAIL PROTECTED]) ---oOO--(_)--OOo-
RE: [expert] GET READY FOR A DISCUSSION (fwd)
Being new to Linux, I can say that the installation was fairly painless and easy to follow along, EXCEPT for the fact that it installs so much... There are programs installed on my machine that I have no idea what they are, what they do, whether or not I actually need them, or even where they are. SOme type of detailed information as to what actually gets installed, what it's useful for, and what effect it has (if any) by removing it. ( BTW, an added bonus would be: in kpackage, if you're try to remove a RPM that has dependancies, it'd be nice to have an option to remove the depandancies along with it... ) True, I can go through the expert installation and go through each and every item in the package list (which I actually started but got real tired of the tediousness of it...) but this isn't very efficient, not to mention the actual descriptions didn't make a whole lot of sense (they were awfully techie). I'm not asking for a 'basic configuration' installation at all, just the presentation of better information to the users about what he/she is installing. The 'basic configuration' or 'quick install' options others are suggesting doesn't appeal to me. For example, in the options available now you can choose server, but if you do, you don't get an XWindows stuff... in a real life environment this may be necessary or more efficient, but as someone who was just learning about Linux, I wanted it to be a server, but I also wanted XWindows... (go figure...) A basic configuration doesn't help people 'LEARN' linux, which is what I was hoping to do. We (Mandrakesoft) are starting internal discussions about future of our distributions NOW. We want you to take part in the process of improving our next distro. - NOW is a time to ask us whatever you want: tell us what you like, tell us what you hate, tell us what you dream of! - NOW is a time for you to influence the future company decisions - start thinking, and if you come up with a briliant idea, post it here.
[expert] GET READY FOR A DISCUSSION (fwd)
(I hope you do not get this twice on expert list)
-
Hi, folks!
What follows is probably a single most important letter I ever posted on
these mailing lists, so please read it very carefully!
[ANNOUNCEMENT]
We (Mandrakesoft) are starting internal discussions about future of
our distributions NOW. We want you to take part in the process of
improving our next distro.
- NOW is a time to ask us whatever you want: tell us what you like, tell
us what you hate, tell us what you dream of!
- NOW is a time for you to influence the future company decisions - start
thinking, and if you come up with a briliant idea, post it here.
Starting NOW, I am going to stop sleeping, eating, or doing any other job
which would interfere with currently most important task: Making sure we
make the best decisions based on whatever input we can get.
[RULES]
* Basically everything you can think of is open for discussion, except
question of including non-free software in the core of our distro, which
is absolute NO-NO.
* Listen to what other people have to say. Try keeping the signal/noise
ratio as high as possible.
* One topic per e-mail and informative subject line help us a lot. ("125
Great ideas!!!" is a very bad subject line.)
* Please, try to avoid any kind of flaming on the list for the next 10
days.
* Finaly, If you have time and skills to pick up ideas from long
discussion threads and write a good summary, please do it, it will help us
a lot.
[TOPICS]
Topics we are particularly interested in at this moment include:
1) ergonomics: What should our user interfaces look like in the
future, what should we improve in our desktop configuration, which things
need polishing...
2) install:Which features of our current installation
program (DrakX) do you like, which features are you missing, what is not
clear enough? The same question goes for post-install configuration
tools.
3) packages: which packages to add, what to remove from the distro,
which subset of packages is really nessesary for a minimal install,
and which packages are "just add-ons"?
4) tools: which new tools (packages) should we develop ourselves, or
improve in case we are already developing them? Many great
programs already exist out there, so we really badly need to know
which important linux tools you still miss, in order to
concentrate on them in the future.
5) system policy: We want to make our system "logical" by following the
Linux Standards, and being consistent in the way
"things" (services, settings) are implemented. Tell us where
we need to improve.
6) security policy: Closely related to point "6". You know that we care a
lot about security, don't you? Well, the problem is choosing right
security settings for various situations.
(If you feel that we have forgotten an important topic, just start a
discusion on it, the list should not be taken too strictly)
I am going to spend a lot of time in reading "newbie" and "expert" mailing
lists during next two weeks. Guillaume will do the same on the
"cooker" list, and other members of the company may pop-up and take
part in discussion too, for topics they may be particularly interested in
(and if they get time to do it, our schedule is bursting).
At the end of the discussion cycle (in two weeks), I will try to write a
resume of what has been decided and share it with you.
yours
Denis Havlik
--
-
Dr. Denis Havlikhttp://www.ap.univie.ac.at/users/havlik
Mandrakesoft||| e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Quality Assurance (@ @)(private: [EMAIL PROTECTED])
---oOO--(_)--OOo-
Re: [expert] GET READY FOR A DISCUSSION (fwd)
I like where Mandrake is going with installation, but I think I want a little more interaction in picking out the packages to load. There are so many, by default you almost load all of them to save problems later on, so: 1) Provide some more information/documentation about the packages 2) Make it easy to opt out of, say, foreign language support as a unit across all packages 3) Provide an interface to pull a package off the distribution CD if you forgot to load it on install More hardware support, I have an Xwave-192 sound card that I haven't been able to use I'd love to try out beta releases, but there's no way I'll be able to download 600M of data reliably, so maybe you want to have some sort of biweekly/monthly CD distribution for people to try out. Thanks and keep up the improvements, Lorne -- Lorne Schachter (732) 819-0460, (732)819-0460 (FAX) http://www.intact.com/~lorne begin:vcard n:Schachter;Lorne x-mozilla-html:TRUE adr:;; version:2.1 email;internet:[EMAIL PROTECTED] x-mozilla-cpt:;-13760 fn:Lorne Schachter end:vcard
