Re: intro/about
On Fri, Aug 31, 2001 at 02:21:49PM -0500, James A. Treacy wrote:
> > > Before translators do updates, I'd like to discuss some of the changes
> > > with you. I should be on #debian-devel later today (yikes, it's after
> > > midnight already).
> > >
> > Well, I just got up :) and I'm always for discussion. :)
> >
> For now, here are some points of discussion pertaining to this
> one document:
>
> You say free, but the CDs cost money!
> vs
> You say free, but the CDs/bandwidth cost money!
> Personally, I find the original less confusing. Saying 'bandwidth
> costs money' makes me think someone is going to send a bill (above
> what is normally paid for connectivity) to download software.
> Of course you need to pay for connectivity, so what was the point of
> this change?
Well it's simple -- you can't tell people that Debian is completely free of
charge if they have to download it over the Internet, analogously when they
have to record it to a CD. All of this "raw material" stuff costs money.
> I suggest changing the word costless to 'without cost' on line 101.
Uh, okay, I wonder why...
> I also notice you removed the term 'open source' in one spot (the last
> occurence on the page). We are not about to miraculously make the free
> vs open source debate go away, but we do need to decide how the terms
> will be used on our pages. One suggestion has been to sidestep the issue
> by using DFSG. After all, that is what the social contract is about.
> Please start a new flamewar^Wthread if you'd like to discuss this.
We explain the difference between open source and free in intro/free.
I didn't feel there's a need to boast it's "Open Source" right in the first
paragraph.
> Although Debian is non-profit, we do have expenses.
> vs
> We don't make any profit from doing any of this, and we do have
> various expenses.
> It's not clear what you didn't like about the original. How about
I didn't like the conjunction (it's messy to translate in at least one other
language :), and I didn't like "although", it implied that the reader
thought we don't have any expenses because we're non-profit.
> Debian does not make any money from the sale of CDs, but we do have
> expenses.
Well, we don't make any money from anything we do, except from Shaleh
selling T-shirts on trade fairs :)
> Also, we need to change
> <A href="$(HOME)/donations">donate</A>
> to
> <A href="$(HOME)/donations">donates</A>
Indeed.
> Since you'd like to combine the hardware and architecuture sections, I
> suggest making the distinction more clear (plus a minor addition):
> <P>Debian will run on most popular personal computers. The list of
> architectures that Debian supports is constantly growing. For a complete
> list, see the <A HREF="../releases/stable/">stable release
> information</A>.
>
> <P>Almost all common hardware is supported.
> If you would like to be sure that everything you have is supported,
> check out the
> changed to:
> <P>Debian will run on almost all personal computers, including most
> older models. The list of
> architectures that Debian supports is constantly growing. For a complete
> list, see the <A HREF="../releases/stable/">stable release
> information</A>.
>
> <P>Almost all common hardware is supported.
> If you would like to be sure that all the devices [anyone prefer peripherals?]
> connected to your machine are supported, check the
That's good, yeah.
My main beef with "architecture" is that I've met no newbies which had more
than a faint idea about what the word referred to. :)
> Another change:
> <P>Don't take our word for it - try Debian out yourself. Since hard disk
> space has become less expensive, you can probably spare about 500MB to try
> out Debian. Debian can be easily installed on this extra space
> and can coexist with your existing OS. If you eventually need more space,
> you can simply delete one of your OSes (and after you see the power of the
> Debian system, we are sure it won't be ours).
> to
> <P>Don't take our word for it - try Debian yourself. Since hard disk
> space has become less expensive, you can probably spare 500MB.
> Debian can easily be installed on this extra space
> and can coexist with your existing OS. If you eventually need more space,
> you can simply delete one of your OSes (and after you see the power of a
> Debian system, we are confident which one it will be).
Most of this doesn't really relate to my change, does it? :) I've always
said that work incites work, which is cool.
> Section
> How do I get support?<
> was changed to
> I can't set it up all by myself. Where do I get support for Debian?
> That doesn't sound to bad except what follows tells them to try and
> install it themselves. I suggest changing it back (s/How/Where/ if you
> want).
The next paragraph tells them that they _can_ do it all by themselves... on
the other hand, that's a silly thing to promote, lart me :)
It should be changed so it tells people that they can do it on their own,
briefly, and then mention consultants.
> This
> For users of IRC, there is a channel, #debian, dedicated to Debian, at irc.debian.org
> was changed to
> For users of IRC, there is a channel dedicated to Debian,
> it's called #debian and you can access it at <code>irc.debian.org</code>.
> Nothing wrong there except it's a run-on sentence. Simply use
> For users of IRC, there is a channel dedicated to Debian.
> It's called #debian and you can access it at <code>irc.debian.org</code>.
Yeah, I wanted less commas, too.
--
2. That which causes joy or happiness.
Reply to: