who's who in the Debian World? (long)
"J.A. Bezemer" wrote:
>> - who decides about what packet goes where (to CD#1, CD#2,
>> etc)?
>
> Basically that's the Popularity Contest, with a bit of
> manual intervention.
> http://people.debian.org/~apenwarr/popcon/
>> - to whom should I send suggestions (if any)?
> Right here.
>> - is there any information about Debian users profile.
>> E.g. how many debian servers, debian desktop, etc.
>
> AFAIK there's no Debian-specific data. But maybe there are interesting results
> in general Linux studies/surveys. Some web-searching might help.
Thank you for your reply! Perhaps, I have to introduce
myself first. I have used several distributions before
like SLS (before 1994), Slackware (1994-1997), RedHat
(1997-2001), and now Debian and Mandrake (2001-).
My current interest is not introducing and distributing
whatever Linux distributions per se; but to find answers
in regard of options for an "IT Division of a research/
education institution in a developing country".
I am convinced, that Debian (at current stage) is the easiest
system to maintain. However, it does not mean it is easy
to install at all. Just recently, I notice that someone
has deleted a Debian system, and replaced it with RedHat,
just because the Debian system does not provide some features
that he has already taken for granted. I am also convinced,
that Mandrake (at current stage) should be recommended for
new users as well as for workstations where security and
maintenance is not so crucial.
Another typical problem in a developing countries is
very bad communication quality. It should NEVER be assumed,
that the link is "on" all the time. Thus, having a complete
local mirror as close as possible is very crucial. Therefore,
I am currently maintaining two mirrors at once:
http://sapi.vlsm.org --> as a buffer "close" to the net.
http://kambing.vlsm.org --> inside an education institution
in a remote area.
With a little help from my friends, there also exists:
http://gajah.vlsm.org
http://kebo.vlsm.org
Since my definition of "useful" is somewhat like "used by
user" and not "what the webmasters have decided", I am continuously
finding out who useful my mirrors are. Nonetheless, convincing
this issue to webmasters with OC-192 facilities is obviously a
waste of time :^).
No back to my prior questions:
- does anyone know the profile of the Debian CD-ROM users?
* what are their problems?
* what do they really need?
* how to "promote" a CD-ROM that does not have all those
non-free-s inside?
Since I am a CD-ROM users too, let me guess the answers:
- I can not imagine that a lay user has enough time to find
out how to set X11, to set a printer, etc. Therefore,
I have reasonable doubt that the CD-ROM will be attractive
to this user segment.
- For myself, what I really need is a bootable CD-ROM with
modules (and perhaps base.tgz). The rest can be selected
from the net.
----------------------------------------------------------
Therefore, is it possible to distribute an official
"mini CD-ROM" image say @ 15 - 30 Mbytes?
----------------------------------------------------------
I believe that this type of CD-ROM will be very handy.
Since, I am still convinced that Debian is still the easiest
system to maintain. Does anyone know how and where to participate
to make Debian a easy system to install?
best regards,
--
Rahmat M. Samik-Ibrahim - VLSM-TJT - http://rms46.vlsm.org
Aint such thing as a free lunch;unless you're the lunch-PH
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