> A lot of people issued objections against 1) since this would waste disk > space. [#1 was the suggestion that we don't compress HTML docs] It only wastes a tiny amount of disk space -- because there isn't a lot of HTML documentation. Some people think that we are going to have lots of HTML docs in the future; but I don't believe so -> most packages get by with a minimal man page and a few README files. This isn't going to change much in the future - every programmer I know hates writing documentation. (The thing that really wastes disk space with HTML documentation is all those .GIF's that people like to stick in) Any large pieces of HTML documentation (over 100k) would be in a separate package -- so we aren't creating a problem for people who have major disk space limitations. Even then, there are tools like e2compr available. > So, how many people here have objections against 3) ? [#3 was the suggestion that we require a web server/modified browsers] I'm not keen on anything that requires someone to install a web server to read basic documentation. Having a "required" base package that consists of a specialized Debian web server for reading documentation and doing system administration tasks is a bad idea IMHO. It's a great idea if it's a "standard" or "optional" package though. Why do I feel that way? Well, part of the charm of Linux, and Unix is general, is that you can construct a powerful computing system with just the Unix kernel, and a few utilities. Very lightweight. Everything else can be optional. If we don't guard against "bloating" the base system, we essentially end up with an inflexible, poorly structured, monolithic base system -- sort of like what Microsoft is doing with Windows NT. With a large base system, we will have more incompatibility problems whenever we try to make fundamental changes. The proper way to introduce new untested concepts and ideas is as "optional" or "experimental" concepts - and only make them a part of the base system when they have withstood the tests of time. Cheers, - Jim
Attachment:
pgpPJOQw1huNE.pgp
Description: PGP signature