On Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:05:39 +0200 Thijs Kinkhorst <thijs@debian.org> wrote: > Hi Neil, > > On moandei 19 July 2010, Neil Williams wrote: > > This sentence in Policy 2.5 is too prohibitive: > > "Systems with only the required packages are probably unusable, but > > they do have enough functionality to allow the sysadmin to boot and > > install more software." > > > > I would suggest a more open wording: > > "Systems with only the required packages installed can be fully > > usable - depending on the type of tasks expected of that system. > > The installed packages still include enough functionality to allow > > the sysadmin to boot and install more software." > > > > I have many systems with only Priority: required packages and a > > selection of hand-picked packages from Priority: optional which are > > fully usable systems - within the expectations of what such a system > > can be expected to achieve, e.g. a NAS or mobile phone installation. > > I think these examples are not great because you basically say that > "required > + a few hand picked packages" is usable, so "required" is usable. I > still agree that the wording can be improved. But I would leave out > the "fully" you introduce, because this is again a variation on the > same problem: the subjectiveness of what constitutes a "usable" or > "fully usable" system. The snippet for the bug report lost the context of the original discussion which related to Priority: important. In the case of these examples, the system would remain usable without the optional packages. It is similar to the discussion between Depends: and Recommends: - just because some extras are added doesn't preclude that the underlying system is usable. > How about just simplifying it to the following, without making any > suggestions about its further usability. Describe in a factual way > what it is, and leaves it to the reader to decide on whether they > think this is usable. > > "Systems with only the required packages installed have at least > enough functionality for the sysadmin to boot the system and install > more software." OK. -- Neil Williams ============= http://www.data-freedom.org/ http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/ http://e-mail.is-not-s.ms/
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