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needed changes to the Debian pages



main page
  Basically, all the long term links should be on the left menu. The body of
  the page should only contain a one paragraph intro to Debian (to help orient
  first time visitors), the headlines of the latest news (grabbed automatically
  from the News pages whenever this page is updated) and other topical announcements.

  This is mostly how it is now, except there is too much information about the
  2.0 release. 

/ports/*/
  All port specific information should be in the port pages. There still aren't
  any x86 port pages. Hint hint.

  Don't use a directory like 2.0/ off the main page in the future. Since the
  installation instructions are port specific they should be in the appropriate
  port directory under a directory named after the release, e.g. the current
  release is hamm. This way we can keep the previous releases installation files
  around for a bit. To make the transition between releases easier you should
  create a link stable -> hamm and have release specific links use stable/
  so all you need to do is change one link to update the pages.
  For example the link to the installation instructions for x86 would be
  "http://www.debian.org/ports/x86/stable/install";.

/intro/about
  This page should be shortened and have the more detailed information in
  links. There has been a suggestion that we create an advocacy page with
  links to other free projects that Debian supports.

  One example is licenses. I wrote a bit about them, but it really should be
  moved to its own page. We need to convince people that some licenses
  are better than others. Hmmm sounds like this should be linked from the
  advocacy page too.

  Writing an intro to something like Debian is not an easy job. You really need to
  give some thought into how you split up all the (interconnected) issues
  involved.

  Additionally, we need to decide whether to use 'Open Source' or 'free software'
  and be consistent in the use. My feeling is that we go with 'Open Source'.
  intro/about was written before 'Open Source' became all the rage so should be
  updated.

  The 'History of Debian' needs to be filled in. I believe this has been done already.
  If so, you just need to find out where it is.

/intro/advocacy
  A new page as mentioned above. The LPF needs to be linked from here (this is what
  started the idea of an advocacy page).

  This should probably be created only when someone has time to redo all the intro
  documents. I have a lot of ideas on this and will do it myself if I get enough
  time.

/doc/index
  suggestion submitted:
  > more reading material until more of the Debian Doc Project stuff is done.
  > Matt Welsh's `Installation and Getting Started', the `Linux System
  > Admin Guide', and a few like that would be good starters.

  Many users are confused by the difference between the Documentation page and
  the Support page. Combining them makes a rather long page so that isn't really
  an option. I'm not sure what to do.

/security/
  The security pages haven't been updated in months. It would be best if someone
  on the security teams sole responsibility was to keep the debian-security-announce
  mailing list and the web pages up to date.

  The security pages need to be updated to the new format. I am willing to convert
  them once we have someone to keep them up to date.

/distrib/vendors
  All the vendors web sites need to be checked to see that they actually contribute.
  They should also be checked after each major release of Debian.

  user suggestion: add www.linux-canada.com

  Walnut Creek may sell Debian. Their web site needs to be checked.

Miscellaneous requests - deal with them as you wish

  Brian White wrote:
  > Hi!  I've entered Debian in this database.  Could you add a link to them
  > somewhere appropriate?  Thanks!
  >      http://www.iversonsoftware.com/add_product.htm
  I'll forward the mail he sent if it looks like you need more info


  > Jules Bean wrote:
  > http://www.debian.org/doc/prospective-packages.html
  > 
  > Cc:ed to webmaster - Jay, I think this needs to be more prominently linked
  > from the developer's corner, this is becoming something of a FAQ. 


  > I think it would be nice if the Dselect Beginners guide was also
  > mentioned and linked off of the Documentation page at
  > http://www.debian.org/doc/.  This is usually a big stumbling block
  > for beginners.

  The main page currently has some links to the installation docs on ftp.debian.org
  and others on www.debian.org . They should probably all use the web version
  as ftp.debian.org is overwhelmed (see next item though).

  All links into the archive should allow the user to select the download site.
  Jason Gunthorpe has been coordinating an improved mirror list which could be
  used to keep the list of mirrors up to date (maybe even using a script).

  Tommi Virtanen wrote:
  > Hi. I have a suggestion for one more page:
  > a list of sites that use Debian, each with
  > a small description of what the site is,
  > how it uses Debian, etc.
  If this is implemented, he included a submission. Mail me if you want it.

I'm currently working on improving the Packages pages. It's mostly done, but there
are some problems with the links to the source files. After that I'll look into
improving the searching on the site.

That should be most everything.

Jay Treacy


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