Re: Where is Debian going?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Derrick 'dman' Hudson" <dman@dman.ddts.net>
To: <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2002 7:29 PM
Subject: Re: Where is Debian going?
I'm very new to Debian, but I think that Thatcher has some good points.
What are names for? Easing and speeding communication. Names that are clear
and intuitively understood will help more people communicate more quickly.
Potato, woody and sid are cute, and they might add something to the Debian
culture. But what value beyond cuteness and sentimentality do they add? If
switching to names that are more clear might help to grow the user base even
a small bit, wouldn't that be a Good Thing? Internal code names can be
cryptic for fun or secrecy, but widely used names should be clear.
As for stable, testing and unstable, the only one that sounds right for
serious use - just from the names - is stable. Only after getting into
Debian a bit would someone realize that testing is a fine build for most
purposes.
>| This is what I mean:
>|
>| potato == 2.x
>| woody == 3.x
>| sid == 4.x
>
>That doesn't work, though, because sid is NOT debian 4.x. 4.x is a
>stable release (which hasn't occured yet).
4.x is a future stable release in the current naming scheme. That could be
changed.
>| newbies, who are by definition more familiar with other OS's.
>
>IMO debian should not take some steps backwards just to be "familiar
>with other OS's". Debian should be as advanced as it can be.
It's not clear what backward steps are being discussed here. Naming releases
to be more easily understandable seems like a forward step in communicating
with users and a step that's completely unrelated to how advanced Debian is.
>| It's the very first stumbling block after deciding to try Debian, and
>
>| I think it's unnecessarily harmful.
>
>Do you think that the naming system needs better documentation?
>You're welcome to contribute some!
Naming systems shouldn't need any documentation or explanation. Simple,
clear and direct beats cute and cryptic for communicating with large groups
of people.
Dave De Graff
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