Re: Cryptic website (scares away potential users)
On Sat, Oct 28, 2017 at 5:50 PM, Henrik Rosenø wrote:
> When I finally get to a page from where I can download a DVD ISO-image of
The front page has a link to download the 64-bit PC Network installer,
how can we make that more obvious to you?
https://www.debian.org/
> the Debian OS - https://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/#stable - I get these
> options to choose from:
All of the /CD and /distrib pages are due for a reorganisation since
years, many people have complained but not enough of them were willing
to work on it.
> How on Earth am I to know which to choose??
We have some infrastructure to translate between architecture names
and non-technical descriptions of those architectures but
unfortunately it isn't used consistently throughout the website,
including this page.
https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/releases/arches.data?view=co
Also, I guess most non-technical users will never have even heard of
anything except PC and mac. Due to Apple changing hardware suppliers,
ironically both of those are now the same architecture (amd64) so I
wonder if people are assuming Debian doesn't support macs now, since
our amd64 architecture is only described as "64-bit PC". The phrase
"64-bit PC" doesn't even describe other places where the amd64
architecture is used, including on servers, tablets and some
smartphones. Then there is the problem of the rise in ARM-based
architectures on various smartphones, tablets, the Raspberry Pi,
Chromebooks etc. I doubt many non-technical users associate any of
these devices with the ARM architectures.
So, I don't think it is feasible to explain to non-technical users
which architecture they want, especially since that changes over time
as hardware companies bring out new products and is very dependent on
the marketing resources of global computer vendors.
Ultimately a semi-automated human-guided detection system might be the
only way to go but there probably aren't any people who have time and
skills to implement that.
Probably the easiest we can do is list popular operating system and
hardware category combinations:
Laptop after 2006 running Apple macOS -> amd64
Laptop before 2006 running Apple macOS -> powerpc (but probably no
longer supported)
Tablet running Apple iOS -> sorry no support unless you are a hardcore hacker
Smartphone running Apple iOS -> sorry no support unless you are a
hardcore hacker
Laptop running Microsoft Windows -> amd64
Tablet running Microsoft Windows -> amd64
Tablet running Microsoft Windows RT -> sorry no support
Smartphone running Google Android -> sorry no support unless you are a
geek or are willing to use one of the chroot apps.
Laptop running Google Chrome -> sorry no support unless you are a geek
Weird IoT devices -> uh, could be any of mips mipsel armel armhf,
probably not supported unless you are a geek
Server -> amd64
Old server -> sparc64?
New server from IBM -> ppc64el
Server from companies selling ARM stuff -> arm64
Router -> uh, could be any of mips mipsel armel armhf, probably not
supported unless you are a geek
Mainframe -> s390x
Other -> ??
> This puts the Debian website in the 100% nerd/geek category where the rest
> of us just walk away.
> Do you want me to find another Linux distribution instead?
Please use a more friendly tone on Debian lists in future, as
suggested by our codes of conduct:
https://www.debian.org/code_of_conduct
https://www.debian.org/MailingLists/#codeofconduct
--
bye,
pabs
https://wiki.debian.org/PaulWise
Reply to: