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Re: More tasks option in Tasksel: what tasks do you want there?



On Sun, Sep 07, 2014 at 04:37:31PM +0800, Thomas Goirand wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> During Debconf14, I could chat with Joey about the future of Tasksel,
> and having a "More option" task, which would lead to a new screen which
> would propose more tasks.
> 
> Before anyone can implement this plan, we have to make sure that we all
> agree on what kind of tasks we want to implement. What I already agreed
> with Joey, is that having a list of 200 tasks will *not* be helpful, so
> we have to make sure we carefully choose what we will implement. So I
> have setup a wiki page so that we can share our thoughts.

Is there a page for "LessTasks"?

The current d-i tasksel page is:
☑ Debian desktop environment
☐ web server
☑ print server
☐ SQL database
☐ DNS server
☐ file server
☐ mail server
☐ SSH server
☐ laptop
☑ standard system utilities

What is "SQL database"?  Current it stands for just "unconfigured postgres". 
No mysql which any newbish person would think of when they hear the words
"linux database".  We may have valid reasons to claim postgres is better,
but that doesn't mean a vast majority of random howtos on the Interwebs will
talk about mysql.  Then, why not mariadb?  Why not sqlite?  Why not
firebird?
Database selection aside, unconfigured postgres is worthless.  I won't buy
that someone able to learn how to create an user + database, allow them to
login then allow connections from the outside world would have trouble
with "apt-get install postgresql".

Same applies to "file server".  This task installs nfs-kernel-server, samba.
Not owncloud or whatever.  Both unconfigured.  How is that better than just
letting the user install whatever file server kind they want?

"DNS server" at least works, but I doubt it's worth taking space on the
primary task screen.

"laptop" could be hidden -- there's a lot more configuration that d-i
autodetects for you.  It's not like a machine is likely to switch between
being a laptop and not... (tablets with detachable keyboard need all laptop
machinery too).


So let's start with trimming the list.  This will provide some space for
choosing between XFCE/Mate/Gnome3/KDE/WindowMaker/fvwm/etc, which is an
important decision to be made at tasksel step.

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