cross-platform virus

[Alan McKinnon]

On Wednesday 12 April 2006 02:35, Alexander Jacob Tsykin wrote:
> On Wednesday 12 April 2006 06:33, Alan McKinnon wrote:

> > Ubuntu gives you a desktop with what the devs consider to be the
> > best apps in each given category. No confusion, no wondering what
> > else to install. It's intended to give an average user the apps
> > they are liable to need. Opinions differ as to whether the apps
> > supplied really are the best choice, but the intent is to provide
> > a desktop that is immediately usable by most users.
>
> yes, but there are apps which an enterprise user might find
> incredibly useful, like Gnucash which are not installed, and there
> are apps which many home users will never use, like Gimp. Provide
> categories. A one-size-fits-all is rarely the best approach. The
> Ubuntu devs would do better to offer a number of choices, each
> tailored to a specific situation.

The problem with that approach is how do you know what the categories 
should be and what apps should be in them? Shall we suck an opinion 
out of some arb dev's thumb and do that? Or survey the sounder list 
members? Then how do you know those members represent an accurate 
sample?

It's so easy to say "offer a bunch of pre-selected choices" and very 
very hard to do. Why is this? Because neither me you nor anyone else 
on this list has the foggiest idea which "specific situations" are 
required, because we have not surveyed it properly. Thinking you know 
is not good enough - you have to go out there and speak to about 
100,000 people to find out and be able to measure it.

For all these reasons, the chosen solution appears to me to be the 
best - a default install and a reasonably straight-forward app 
(synaptic) that the user can use to install whatever else he/she 
needs.

> > However, if you need a development box, then it's a cinch you
> > know how to apt-get so that's left up to you. If you need a
> > server-type install, then you get to apt-get all the stuff you
> > need.
>
> IF you are trying to make a server or a development box, chances
> are you know exactly what programs you need and how to get them, so
> its not really these people that need their own category, and
> putting all the -dev packages on the CD might blow out the size too
> much.

Which is exactly what I'm saying. There's no need for a default 
server-type install

> > There's no need to provide several choices of install types, the
> > OS wasn;t designed with those goals in mind.
>
> It was designed with ease of use in mind. If you can make it easier
> for people to start up without any apps they don't need and with
> all the ones they do, then why not? Seems that not providing
> choices violates the Ubuntu philosophy.

So we come back to my original statement. What are these apps that 
these people do and don't need? Please provide a list. And when you 
do, please make sure it is a researched list that accurately reflects 
the needs and wishes of the actual user base, as opposed to your own 
personal opinion.

-- 
If only you and dead people understand hex, 
how many people understand hex?

Alan McKinnon
alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za
+27 82, double three seven, one nine three five