What is the fascination with 'spins'

[Horst H. von Brand]

Fulko.Hew at sita.aero wrote:
> monty19 wrote on 02/04/2007 03:19:45 PM:

> I agree completely with what monty19 wrote, so I'm going to
> paraphrase/extract
> their important points as they apply to me.

> > Personally, I think having separate ISO images for Desktop, Developer,
> > Server, KDE, and whatever else is a pretty silly idea

Ditto here. But then again, it is a free world... maybe it works out for
the better.

> I run Fedora on systems I would classify as a server/Desktop/Developer
> Workstation, and so would everybody else that I personally know.

Same here. But we ran some servers on Fedora a while back (later moved to
White Box and then CentOS).

> > Regardless of classification though, it takes just one DVD to install
> > any systems I have.

Wouldn't we all like that... problem is, that one would turn out /huge/.
And then the wining about "why should I get 8GiB just to install 2"
starts...

> > I look at it this way; if you're going to download two ISO images, then
> > why not download two that have all the packages you want.  Why
> > download a server disc, and a desktop disc, which may both be lacking
> > packages you want to install, and then are forced to download anyway...

OK, today you get 5 CDs with everything (or one DVD). Now you will be able
to get exactly what you want and build your own CD sets. What is lost here?

> > I just can't help but feel like this is a less than ideal turn of
> > direction for Fedora, not just for the reasons above, but also because
> > it is going to confuse new users.

Let's try and see. Nobody says the spins have to be official, there could
well be the "LUG of <someplace> spin" or "My spin for rescue/repair" too.
If some gets wildly popular, more power to them.

> And when we are trying to tell new users that a Linux distribution comes
> with everything that you could possible want or need, and then it
> doesn't...  because they downloaded the wrong 'targeted' ISO, they're
> going to be dissapointed, and discouraged... to put it lightly.

Have to tell everybody upfront what is included and what isn't. It is not
like Fedora has "everything you could possibly want or need" today...

> And in a similar vein, I'd still like the Fedora installer to have an
> 'install everything on the media' option like the old version did.

That option was/is nonsense, as has been explained on this list in endless
flamewars.  Won't happen again, and good riddance.
-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica                    Fono: +56 32 2654431
Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria             +56 32 2654239
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