just minor changes in addition to Michael's to progress bit forward: patch attached. Of cause feel free to discard ;) ediff mode in emacs makes it very easy to do selectively ;) I also embedded few comments. I agree with Michael's comment that more glue and flow-shaping would be beneficial. Also, I think it is time to escape from GNU/Linux box... Debian doesn't solely consists of GNU, neither it is solely Linux (thanks to various ports). I know that our front page says that we should call it GNU/Linux... but it is indeed a 'universal FOSS operating system', thus not just GNU and not just Linux. Therefore some of my changes removed GNU/Linux boxing where imho appropriate. On Wed, 08 Dec 2010, Michael Hanke wrote: > Hi, > On Wed, Dec 08, 2010 at 11:49:17PM +0100, Andreas Tille wrote: > > svn+ssh://svn.debian.org/svn/debian-med/trunk/community/papers/11_med-floss_luxemburg > > Any comment is welcome and sorry for this late notification > Attached is a diff with a proposal of changes to this first third of the > manuscript (need to get some sleep now). If I don't see a flood of > comments when I wake up, I'll try to get to the end of the manuscript > and will send more comments -- if I have any. > In general I had the impression that some aspects are not yet well > connected with the general flow of the manuscript. Some paragraphs read > like lists of thoughts that might have to be extended to make them > easily comprehensible. Are there are space constraints? > Please feel free to discard any portion of the diff ;-) > Michael -- =------------------------------------------------------------------= Keep in touch www.onerussian.com Yaroslav Halchenko www.ohloh.net/accounts/yarikoptic
From 79024ee9dd293c6aca37df14e6d020819399943b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Yaroslav Halchenko <debian@onerussian.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 02:18:31 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] minor changes/rewordings
---
11_med-floss_luxemburg/Makefile | 2 +-
11_med-floss_luxemburg/paper-text.tex | 111 +++++++++++++++++++--------------
2 files changed, 64 insertions(+), 49 deletions(-)
mode change 100644 => 100755 11_med-floss_luxemburg/Makefile
diff --git a/11_med-floss_luxemburg/Makefile b/11_med-floss_luxemburg/Makefile
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 5581634..ea7bea4
--- a/11_med-floss_luxemburg/Makefile
+++ b/11_med-floss_luxemburg/Makefile
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ $(text).dvi: $(text).tex
latex $(text).tex
dmstats.pdf: debian_med_stats.dat
- debian_med_stats
+ ./debian_med_stats
pdf: $(text).pdf
diff --git a/11_med-floss_luxemburg/paper-text.tex b/11_med-floss_luxemburg/paper-text.tex
index 584f7ba..467116a 100644
--- a/11_med-floss_luxemburg/paper-text.tex
+++ b/11_med-floss_luxemburg/paper-text.tex
@@ -227,52 +227,62 @@ packages. The regular user is interested in a subset of these
packages. To specify packages of one's particular interest, several
options are provided by Debian:
\begin{description*}
-\item[tasksel] Provision of a reasonable selection of rather general
+\item[tasksel] Provision of a reasonable software selection for rather general
tasks that can be accomplished using a set of packages installed on
a Debian GNU/Linux system. However, these are not yet covering
- scientific applications. The Blend toolkit which is currently
- developed will also support \command{tasksel} to enable selecting
- for instance Debian Med right after a fresh installation of a
+ scientific applications. Currently developed Blend toolkit
+ will also support \command{tasksel} to enable selection of \emph{niche}
+ software collections, \emph{e.g.} Debian Med, right after a fresh installation of a
general Debian system.
+% yoh: don't we want ideally "during a fresh installation of a Debian system"?
-\item[command line package management] \command{apt} provide means to
+\item[command line package management] \command{apt} and \command{aptitude} provide means to
search for packages of particular interest by its name or words in
the package's description. Every package also indicates, as set by
its maintainer, references to other packages of potential interest.
+% yoh: what about
+% debtags
+% "Similar packages" on packages.debian.org?
+
+
\item[GUI] There are several graphical user interfaces to manipulate
the installation of packages on a Debian installation. The most
- popular is currently \command{synaptic} which eneables users to seek
- for certain packages and displays detailed information about each
+ popular is \command{synaptic}. It allows users to seek
+ for certain packages and to display detailed information about each
package.
\end{description*}
-Debian officially maintains 13 different architectures with many more
-not officially supported ports to other operating systems, which
-includes some that run another flavour of UNIX. Its technology for
-package management has been adopted for other operating systems,
-i.e. Fink on MacOSX
+Debian officially maintains 13 different architectures. Additionally
+there exist not supported officially ports to other architectures and
+operating systems cores. Debian package management and distribution infrastructure
+has been adopted to other operating systems lacking an built-in equivalent,
+\emph{i.e.} Fink on MacOSX
(\printurl{fink.sourceforge.net}{fink.sourceforge.net}).
-A {\itshape distribution\/} is a collection of software packages
-around the GNU Linux operating system that satisfies the needs of the
-target user group. There are general distributions, which try to
-support all users, and there are several specialised distributions,
-which each target a special group of users.
+% yoh: context below is not necessary about GNU and even more so
+% not about Linux
+A {\itshape distribution\/} is a collection of software packages.
+There are general distributions, which do not have a specific target
+user group and try to provide a universal coverage,
+and there are several specialised distributions targeting specific groups of users.
{\itshape Distributors\/} are those companies that are building these
-collections of software around the GNU Linux operating system. Since
-the software is Free, the user who buys a distribution pays for the
+collections of software. Since the software provided by GNU/Linux distributions
+is Free, the user purchasing a copy of the distribution pays for the
service that the distributor is providing. These services might be:
\begin{itemize*}
- \item Preparing a useful collection of software around GNU Linux.
- \item Caring for smooth installation that the target user is able to
- manage.
- \item Providing software updates and security fixes.
- \item Writing documentation and translations to enable the user to
- use the distribution with maximum effect.
- \item Selling Boxes with ready to install CDs and printed
- documentation.
+ \item Preparing a collection of the software for the target domain of
+ use nicely integrated within a uniform environment.
+ \item Guaranteeing overall quality of the product and smooth
+ installation procedure.
+ \item Making software accessible to the users by writing
+ documentation to enable the usage of the system with maximum
+ effect.
+ \item Assuring robust performance with timely software updates and
+ security fixes.
+ \item Providing technical support and troubleshooting.
+ \item Selling installation media and printed documentation.
\item Offering training and qualification.
\end{itemize*}
@@ -283,37 +293,42 @@ service that the distributor is providing. These services might be:
In 2003 to 2005 the advent of several adapted distributions with a
focus on bioinformatics and medicine could be observed. Most of them
-were Knoppix\cite{knopper:2005} (and thus indirectly Debian) based.
-The motivation for such distributions was, that it simply was possible
-for a quite small team of less than five people to issue some kind of
-a product which had the following features:
+were based on Knoppix\cite{knopper:2005} (and thus indirectly on Debian).
+The motivation behind was to allow
+a quite small team of less than five people to release
+a product with the following features:
\begin{itemize*}
\item easy to assemble
- \item fit the personal needs of this specific work group
- \item cute web page intended to attract users
+ \item tailored for the personal needs of this specific work group
+ \item attractive web appearance
+% \end{itemize*}
+% yoh: items below sound like anti-features ;) Might be worth
+% separating, smth like:
+%As a result, often some goals had to be relaxed, resulting in
+%\begin{itemize*}
%% FIXME should be mentioned later in comparison to Debian Med
\item sloppy about policy of the underlying Debian system
\item sloppy about the licenses of the included programs
\end{itemize*}
-It is hard to estimate the user base of these distributions but it can
-be assumed that it was basically used inside the institution where the
-developers are working because it is usually an offspring of their
-daily work. As a consequence of this there was usually no great
-effort done to set up some bug tracking system or other means for an
-effective user interaction (frequently used mailing list, active IRC
-channel etc.)
+It is hard to estimate the user base of such distributions but it can
+be assumed that they were basically used inside the institution where
+developed.
+As a consequence, usually no much
+effort was taken care about setting up a complete support
+infrastructure: bug tracking system, active mailing lists,
+forums, IRC, etc.
%FIXME: security!
-It turned out that this was to distribute Free Medical Software is not
-very sustainable. Some of these distributions issued only one single
-release, others stayed longer but they are continuously draining
-manpower. So there are no security updates available and the
-distribution persists in the state of general software tools at the
-point in time when the fork from Debian / Knoppix / other distribution
-was done. The latter fact makes this approach to distribute software
-for sensible medical data unacceptable.
+It turned out that such approach for the distribution of Free Medical Software is not
+very sustainable. Some of these distributions issued only a single
+release, others remained afloat longer but continuously loosing
+manpower. So no security updates were made available and the
+distribution of general software tools persisted in the state of
+when the fork from Debian / Knoppix / other distribution
+was done. The latter fact made such an approach to distribute software
+unacceptable for sensible medical data.
That's why Debian Med has a different approach. The initial team was
also quite small but has grown in the eight years of existence to more
--
1.7.2.3
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature