Yodel!
(I'm obviously picking up on the discussion sparked by the Med@Tel report/
blends on the main page thread)
I had a quick look at the kde.org and gnome.org pages. I think the "blends
on main page" is a sub-topic of "what can you do after you've installed
Debian."
On both the gnome.org and the kde.org pages, besides the "what is" and "how
to get" info, there is a prominent "applications" section. Note that (as
with Debian's many packages) this is stuff that is not part of the core KDE
/ GNOME distributions, but is stuff that you can do after you've got a
desktop.
I think that debian.org misses this kind of information completely. We
explain that Debian is an OS, and that it has "packages" (but to a non-
techie, that is an empty word), and distrib/packages (where it points to)
also is a quite technical description. "Read more" points to intro/about,
leaving the "packages" topic completely.
Linking to blends and/or subprojects would be addressing target groups,
which would probably be useful.
My proposal (which is orthogonal) is linking to applications, just to show
that Debian is not just an operating system as defined on our title page
("set of basic programs and utilities that make your computer run.")
* a new page, prominently listing the top applications (tbd - but the
target group is the "average user", so this would probably include stuff
like libreoffice, iceweasel, apache/php/mysql and other web stuff etc.; then
mention kde and gnome and perhaps point to their application pages, and
possibly include a "more stuff" link, pointing to a package db browsable by
debtags/categories (does this already exist? Offline right now, can't
check.)
* obviously needs to link to "how can I install this stuff" information
* should not be a wall of text like so many of our pages are. all the
applications I've mentioned above have a logo...
* needs to be linked from the short section on packages which is on the
title page. (replaces the "packages" link; the "read more" link could
perhaps point to distrib/packages; intro/about feels irrelevant in that
paragraph.)
Should I do a draft of such an "applications" page? Let's not get into
fights on which application should be listed (yet) - we can always make it a
dynamic page and list a random selection of applications... :-)
Again: maybe we also could/should link to subprojects/blends/... that
address specific target user groups - it's just a thought I had after
reading that discussion.
cheers
-- vbi
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