Priorities

[Anthony Towns <aj@azure.humbug.org.au>]

Hi,

I know a lot of people are annoyed by tetex and emacs being standard
priority, and I personally find it odd that X isn't "standard" these
days, especially since it's "more of a piece of infrastructure than an
application". The separation between important and standard also doesn't
seem very clear. And in addition it's not at all clear how task packages
fit in.

So I wonder if changing it to something more like:

	'important': things that will be on *every* system, except *very*
		specialised ones
	'standard': everything that might reasonably appear in an "off the
		shelf" install
	'optional': everything else that doesn't conflict with anything above
	'extra': anything rare, or conflicting with optional or higher packages

dselect should, generally, only select important packages by default, rather
than standard as it does at the moment. task-* packages are then standard,
and everything in them would need to be standard or higher.

This would give installers a few options:

	required: minimal, build-your-own-distribution
	important: basic functionality, build-your-own-distribution
	task-*: specific purpose box
	standard: very general purpose box
	optional: obsessive compulsive admin with too much disk space

At any rate, something  like this might be a good idea.

Cheers,
aj

-- 
Anthony Towns <aj@humbug.org.au> <http://azure.humbug.org.au/~aj/>
I don't speak for anyone save myself. GPG signed mail preferred.

  ``We reject: kings, presidents, and voting.
                 We believe in: rough consensus and working code.''
                                      -- Dave Clark