Quoting Richard Owlett (2019-04-17 16:43:50) > On 04/15/2019 05:29 PM, Jonas Smedegaard wrote: > > Quoting Richard Owlett (2019-04-15 23:25:06) > >> I have a mental image of an ideal Debian "thingy" > >> Is my "thingy" a "blend" or "derivative"? > >> [snip] > >> My constraint is that if one might want to convert "thingy" to > >> current default, a less than "x line" bash script would be trivial. > >> > >> Where should I ask? > > > > Taking the last thing first: Welcome. Seems you came to the right > > place! > > [snip] > > > > Care to elaborate more on what you want to create? Is it only an > > idea by now, or do you have something more concrete? Are you set on > > what and how you want it, or would you be interested in criticism > > and feedback? > > > > Philosophically -- smaller *IS* better. > Debian has a tendency of trying to _simultaneously_ meet ALL needs of > ALL people at ALL times. [For how "happy" that makes "everybody", look > at Synaptic/Gnome/X/Wayland thread on debian-user.] > > I believe there is a pervasive lack of appreciation of just how many > specific "use cases" there are and their conflicting priorities. > > During development my target audience will: > 1. be using a single machine. > 2. not act as server [likely will be client of LAN &/or internet]. > 3. have no desires to have compilers or assemblers. > 4. will use scripting languages [Tcl/Tk meets my needs] > 5. will use a GUI DE [I prefer MATE] > > > First I will see just how small a command line only system I can > create using preseed.cfg with the default installer. [how close to > size of netinst.iso can I get?] That sounds very much like my "cli" profile at http://box.redpill.dk/ - currently only available for a few ARM-based machines but tell me if interested in a generic build for amd64 or i386. If you prefer to try on your own then I perfectly understand; I found it a great learning experience to refine this setup for 4 years now :-) > Then I will see just how small I can make a very-minimalist MATE > install. Initially it is unlikely to have more than Pluma, Caja, > Gparted, MATE Terminal, and an undefined subset of the Places and > System menus. > > I will be heavily using apt-get's "--no-install-recommends" option > during my tests. All packages will be from official Debian > repositories. Beware that generally ignoring package recommendations violates Debian Policy, so if your system rely on that then it would not be a Debian Blend, because then you derive from Debian as a core principle (not due to some interim hack you want to get rid of in the long run). Part of what I do with the tool boxer (which I use for making DebianParl, Debian Design and the http://box.redpill.dk/ profiles) is to carefully identify and track which specific places I find sensible to override package recommendations, and why. And if I find some _generally_ sensible to override then file bugreports requesting relaxing those to suggestions instead. Other blends do similar, using different approaches to track their _specific_ choices - but do *not* generally dismiss recommendations! > I've been casually reading this list for a long time. There has been > discussion of how to integrate(ww?) choice of Blends into the standard > install menu -- in the back of my mind I wonder if my approach would > aid that? I just don't know enough. First develop a blend. Then make it into a pure blend (i.e. fully inside Debian). When you have a working Debian Pure Blend then (but not before) it makes sense to consider including it in Debian installer. > I'm looking for a list where my goals would be on-topic, even if > perhaps on the border. Is debian-blends appropriate? The blends list is for discussing coordination across blends, and the concept of blends - it is inappropriate to use this list to discuss development of specific blends. Maybe I could interest you in joining me in devloping the Tinker blend - you could help refine what should be in the desktop profile and we could add a Tcl/Tk addon profile for your special needs, and you can simply ignore the other addon profiles: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTinker ...or if your aim is something more polished and smooth, then maybe I could interest you in joining the development of the Design blend (there's no wiki page for it but it exists in Debian as package design-desktop (among others). Or look around for other blends you might want to join. Or get in touch with one of the many many existing derivatives and suggest them to become a Debian Blend: https://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/Census. Personally I might some day suggest that to BunsenLabs Linux (but if your love for Mate is strong then you'd want to look elsewhere). Or start on your own if you prefer. - Jonas -- * Jonas Smedegaard - idealist & Internet-arkitekt * Tlf.: +45 40843136 Website: http://dr.jones.dk/ [x] quote me freely [ ] ask before reusing [ ] keep private
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: signature