Re: Package count on Debian homepage
On Mon, Feb 23, 2015 at 07:18:02AM +1100, Riley Baird wrote:
> > It think that statements on the homepage and on the "why Debian?" pages
> > like "Debian comes with over 37500 different pieces of software." are a
In
https://www.debian.org/intro/why_debian
"37500 different pieces of software" is linked to
https://www.debian.org/distrib/packages
which explain precompiled binary package.
So this number should be binary packages.
Other places
https://www.debian.org/intro/about
https://www.debian.org/
are like:
Debian comes with over 37500 packages (precompiled software ...
Here again is clearly binary packages.
So we can not simply plug in source package numbers.
> > bit misleading since newcomers will most likely interpret this as the
> > number of software projects that are packaged within Debian. Counting
> > the binary/non-source packages inflates the package count with
> > debug/header/documentation packages.
> >
> > I think it would be more appropriate to put up a count of source
> > packages. For example, in the Debian Administrator's handbook, there is
> > the statement "Furthermore, with more than 17,300 source packages, the
> > available software can meet almost any need that one could have, whether
> > at home or in the enterprise" [1].
Let's see the fact. I downloaded current stable and jessie Sources.*
files for main (=Debian without non-free).
$ grep '^Package:' Sources.jessie.main|wc -l 20869
$ grep '^Package:' Sources.stable.main|wc -l 17165
Debian Administrator's handbook is right for the stable system.
Please note Debian (not-like FreeBSD nor Gentoo) prides its distribution
of binary as its main distribution focus. So listing source package
number in such places miss the point.
> To be honest, I don't think that it will affect the potential user's
> decision much whether it says 37500 or 17300.
I agree. If we ever update these, let's not clutter all of them.
If we decide to update this to address this info, let's update only
https://www.debian.org/intro/about and its diff should be more like:
Debian comes with over 37500 packages (precompiled software that is
bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine)
+ compiled from more than 17,300 upstream source packages,
a package manager (APT), and other utilities that make it possible to
manage thousands of packages on thousands of computers as easily as
installing a single application. All of it free.
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