"How many developers run for the post of leader of the Debian GNU/Linux project and cite as part of their platform a desire to make Debian sexy again? None that I know of - except Sam Hocevar who won the recent election for leader of the project. One among eight who put forward their cases to the 1043-odd developers who are eligible to vote, Hocevar modestly puts his election down to 'luck'. He says it is a vote for change."
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Member since:2006-01-01
One area where Debian can improve is to create metapackages several of the common Debian installs with experts in each area choosing the best of the breed apps in each area.
There's already something like this in Debian, only it's called "tasks" (which are better than metapackages). You just download the netinst ISO image and burn it onto a CD. Then, after installing the base Debian system, you start aptitude and go to "tasks" to choose what kind of system you want.
And if the Summer of Code project for Debian Live turns out successful, users can in the future build easily custom Debian live-cd's with the "tasks" of their choice. Debian Live should become considerably more interesting when the live-cd gets a hd-installer.
http://code.google.com/soc/debian/appinfo.html?csaid=AE1F86C9D1EAF7...
http://lists.debian.org/debian-desktop/2007/04/msg00018.html
Member since:
2005-07-09
plib, just because Ubuntu had(?) some growing pains doesn't mean that it has nothing to teach Debian. After all, Debian does 95% of the work but Ubuntu gets 70% of the exposure. Why is that?
It's not all Timerlake-fluff, since it it were, Ubuntu would die after a few releases since all hype eventually gets deflated once people wise up and they'd all move to Debian. As mentioned above, the only thing Ubuntu really contributes is that missing 5% and while you might think that this 5% is unimportant, it's not. It's the whole reason for Ubuntu's success and it's something that can easily be adopted by Debian without changing the core of what Debian is. All that's required is the will to do it.
Let's put aside the regular predictable release date comment (personally I think Debian stable should be have *longer* release cycles for enterprises but have more predictable release dates, but that's just my preference). One area where Debian can improve is to create metapackages several of the common Debian installs with experts in each area choosing the best of the breed apps in each area. Create a "web server Debian", a "router Debian", an "LSB Debian", "a firewall Debian", a "Terminal Server Debian", an "Enterprise GNOME Desktop Debian", "Enterprise KDE Desktop Debian", "Enterprise XFCE Desktop Debian", "Recovery Disk Debian", etc. Then create ISOs for each of these custom configurations along with the existing "allow me to pick exactly which packages I want Debian" and place them on a common high profile web page on Debian.org that is easy to find. There are hundreds of areas that would benefit from these "already configured" Debian subprojects. Debian would quickly become *the* metadistribution to go to when you have a need and want to satisfy a need and you either don't have the experience to make informed choices yet or you don't have the time to carefully configure Debian the way you need it configured.