Re: branding debian releases
I think that will only add to the confusion.
Operating systems aren't supposed to be esoteric.
Pick a good name for each (your "future," etc sound
good), and then write an easy to understand
one-sentence explanation at the download site.
--- Will Trillich <will@serensoft.com> wrote: > On
Wed, Apr 14, 2004 at 06:47:42PM -0400, Chris
> Metzler wrote:
> > This thread got started because people were
> frustrated about having
> > to explain stable vs. testing vs. unstable to new
> users trying
> > Debian. But it appears to me that a lot of people
> with strong
> > ideas on how to fix that don't understand the
> differences themselves.
>
> this is good evidence that there must be a better
> approach than
> the one we're currently using.
>
> john doe will read "stable" and might think it means
> that "it's
> got all the current upstream bug fixes" when what we
> mean by it
> is "we stopped adding new stuff to this one a long
> time ago, and
> haven't found any serious conflicts in quite a long
> time".
>
> john doe will read "unstable" and may think it means
> "not
> stable", whereas what we mean is "probably stable,
> and we're
> working on making it more stable".
>
> john doe will read "testing" and may think it means
> "experimental" when we intend it to mean "whatever
> isn't stable
> here will be really soon, and it'll be the new
> stable version".
>
> there's a discrepancy between what a newbie it
> likely to infer,
> and what the old hands have learned to interpret.
>
> > The web page http://www.debian.org/devel/testing
> explains what testing
> > is. It isn't what many people in this thread seem
> to be suggesting.
>
> exactly this confusion could be alleviated by a
> better naming
> scheme. but perhaps we should examine AVOIDING
> descriptive names
> altogether...
>
>
>
> as Tom Massey also has a point:
>
> On Thu, Apr 15, 2004 at 12:14:05AM +1000, Tom Massey
> wrote:
> > I vaguely suspect that renaming the releases won't
> actually
> > solve the problem that it's meant to - reducing
> confusion
> > among new Debian users. You're likely to just end
> up with a
> > new set of labels to explain. Any name you come up
> with is
> > going to be too short to fully explain the
> situation: call
> > stable 'server', testing 'desktop' for example,
> and you still
> > have to explain that the server release is good
> for desktops
> > if you prefer stability over new stuff, and the
> desktop
> > release might be good for a server if you need
> more recent
> > packages and don't want to search for backports.
> You can't fit
> > all that info into a short name. I run unstable
> on my desktop
> > machine, stable on my mail server because I know
> what the
> > names mean. Education as to what goes in to the
> various Debian
> > releases is the key, and changing the release
> names doesn't do
> > much for that.
>
>
> perhaps instead of trying for
> descriptive-but-too-short a name
> for each layer (stable/testing/unstable) of release,
> we should
> stick to ONLY the colorful code names which will
> give the newbie
> NOTHING to assume about current-vs-stable, and then
> they're more
> likely to traipse over to the description page to
> learn what's
> what.
>
> i.e. instead of
>
> stable / server / rocksolid
> testing / workstation / almost
> unstable / cuttingedge / future
>
> maybe we should avoid the descriptive names and use
> only
>
> ...slink
> ...potato
> woody
> sarge
> sid
>
> ?
>
> --
> I use Debian/GNU Linux version 3.0;
> Linux boss 2.4.18-bf2.4 #1 Son Apr 14 09:53:28 CEST
> 2002 i586 unknown
>
> DEBIAN NEWBIE TIP #101 from Joost Kooij
> <joost@topaz.mdcc.cx>
> :
> Looking for a way to CREATE A PAGE OF LINKS to all
> the
> */index.html that already exist in your
> /usr/share/doc tree?
> apt-get install dwww
> then point your browser to:
> http://localhost/dwww
>
> Also see http://newbieDoc.sourceForge.net/ ...
>
>
> --
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