Re: Where is Debian going?
On Jul 10, 2002 at 06:49 -0500, Derrick 'dman' Hudson wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 10, 2002 at 05:51:20PM -0400, Thatcher Ulrich wrote:
> | MHO newbie opinion: emphasize version numbers (2.x, 3.x, 4.x) and
>
> That sounds fine for a "you can only get 'stable'" release method
> (like every commercial software house runs it), however what version
> is sid/unstable? What about testing?
This is what I mean:
potato == 2.x
woody == 3.x
sid == 4.x
and deprecate the names. As of now,
stable == 2.x
testing == 3.x
unstable == 4.x
subject to change! So use the names more as description. Use the
numbers as designation.
> How hard is it really to learn that
> "unstable" means latest-and-greatest-but-who-knows-if-it-breaks-your-system
> "testing" means tested-a-bit-and-should-work-but-YMMV
> "stable" means tested-a-lot-and-is-really-stable
Pretty easy; much easier than learning how to configure X. But still
hard on newbies, who are by definition more familiar with other OS's.
It's the very first stumbling block after deciding to try Debian, and
I think it's unnecessarily harmful.
I've personally figured it out by now. All I'm saying is that in the
critical early moments of introducing myself to Debian, my pea-brain
would have had a much easier time with { 2.x, 3.x, 4.x } instead of {
potato, woody, sid }.
> | The Toy Story code names are cute but totally confusing; I say ditch 'em.
>
> Everyone has names -- even RH and Mandrake (Seawolf, Enigma, Cooker).
> There's nothing wrong with the names, really.
Maybe what I'm reaching for is that Debian needs "marketing names",
which really ought to be numbers, for minimum confusion. Red Hat has
their 6.0, 6.1, 7.0; Windows has their 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, XP; Mac has
their 9.1, X, 10.2. All the Red Hat distros I used before starting w/
Debian had cute South Park names, but as a user I didn't have to
remember which was which.
--
Thatcher Ulrich
http://tulrich.com
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