Re: site design again
On Wed, 08 Apr 1998 12:48:36 +0200, Thomas Apel wrote:
> James A.Treacy wrote:
> >
> > If you feel you have good ideas, please convert a few more pages
> > to what you'd like to see and get back to us. People like what you
> > have done so far so keep going. If we like that too, I'd love it if
> > you became a developer so I could give you access to the web pages.
>
> In addition to the index I also converted the following pages. Just
> follow the links on the index page.
>
> - About Debian
> - Distribution
> - Packages
> - Download via FTP
> - Debian on CD
>
> Take a look at it:
> http://www.koeln.netsurf.de/~thomas.apel/debian/index.html
>
> Comments are welcome. Especially about the usability with Lynx. It's
> difficult for me to judge about this as I never really used Lynx.
I like it a lot (nice logo, websponsor, ..). Kudos.
It's still a little bit "tall" (vertical), however it probably will
look a little nicer without the "demo site" section. Definately don't
let it increase vertically, otherwise it will require too much
scrolling in lower resolutions/monitor sizes. You might want to try
reducing the vertical aspect a little further.
One suggestion I have is to rotate the "What is Debian?" section with
others, to maintain variety and keep web surfers interest. Some
potential substitues may include a select news story, particularly one
which advocates Debian or gives the latest breaking news on release
information (dates, irc parties, ..), or honorable notice in industry
publications (to spread the gospel). Another idea is to provide some
kind of "eye candy" or "lure" to draw attention on a featured package
or development issue (e.g., APT, DEC Alpha or Mk68 versions). My
general idea being that debian should convey the image that it is a
leader and showcase it's talents, recognition, accolades more
prominently.
On this note, I've wondered if anyone has noticed that the word "free"
is used an awful lot in the "about Debian" page? From what I've been
reading, "free" is not a good way to describe Linux, because it conveys
the perception of reduced quality. I don't want to start any battles,
and I'm certainly not qualified to interpret the slew of free software
licenses, so please don't attack too vigorously what I'm about to say,
but has anyone considered updating the "about Debian" and "Debian
Social Contract (DFSG)" pages to make use of the term "open source",
which conveys higher quality than "free". I'm aware "open source" is a
registered something-or-another, and has it's own home page
(www.opensource.org) and I don't know what the ramifications of that
are (nor have I seen it discussed in Debian lists). I've noticed that
other leading Linux distros are mentioned in qualifying open source
products, and Debian seems to be excluded. Since Debian is somewhat of
a free software pioneer, this seems unfounded. Further, because Debian
is a non-commercial (I hope my terminology is correct) distro, I think
Debian is more susceptible to this misperception than commercial
distros ("free" equating to reduced quality). Feedback? (Be nice!)
--
David Stern
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