[openbeos] Distropia
- From: Michael Phipps <mphipps1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 15:30:43 -0500
Wow - this is the most interesting thread that we have had in a long time. :-)
What is a "distro"? Well, of course, it is short for "distibution" - of
software, one would assume. :-) So the question is, what software are we
distributing?
I don't think that there is any question that, at the bare minimum, we
should/will distribute the OS. I picture this as sort of like R5 personal
edition - a downloadable, freely distributable file that would be an .iso file.
People could burn and boot.
So, given that the primary method of distribution that I forsee is internet
based, here are some things to think about:
1) File size for bandwidth reasons. Bandwidth isn't free (or even all that
cheap). We would potentially be "on the hook" for however many thousands of
downloads people want to go to our website and initiate. We could post the file
at SourceForge and berlios.de and other places, too.
2) File size for philosophical reasons. Aren't we supposed to be small, nimble,
power in a contained package? Not the "suburban sprawl" of software. :-)
3a) What would you include (legal) - there is a lot of time, effort and money
necessary to negotiate terms for making a distro with non-free software.
Assuming that I would be responsible for that, it is a pretty daunting task.
What should we include? Who pays for ports? Are NDAs acceptable?
3b) What would you include for a selection? As an example - Axeld mentioned
that he thinks that we should include ssh. Honestly, I don't have terribly
strong feelings either way, but the vast majority of users would *NEVER KNOW*
what ssh is and never use it. Should everyone download software that they don't
need? Or should there be more than one distro?
3c) What focus or direction should a (or would each?) distro take? Coders?
Musicians? Artists? Gamers? Low needs (email, browsing, light word processing)?
4) What facilities should/would/will we have in place for getting "other"
packages? This is, I think, the most key question. BeBits is one of key
benefits of BeOS/Haiku. One site that you can go to and get binaries that are:
- diverse in nature
- going to work on your system
- well described
- always available
- rateable
- free
Is the additional effort necessary to aquire other software so great that an
end user can't/won't bother?
5) How would the above issues be different between CD/DVD distros and internet
based distros?
6) Who will put together the distro? Build, test, burn, host, support?
I think that these questions need to be answered and I can't answer them alone.
I can/will commit Haiku to building the distro for distro makers. But if the
community wants something more from us, I think that some of the above
questions will have to be answered to reasonable consensus...
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