FC5T2 ready for even a test release?

[Horst von Brand]

gb spam <gbofspam at gmail.com> wrote:
> > In any case, the /reasonable/ dial-up user will check locally first. Plus
> > somebody who has got just dialup is quite unlikely to have enough machine
> > to spare to install gobs of useless stuff...
> 
> unlikely maybe, but does that mean we should have a policy to exclude them?

> large user base * unlikely = significant numbers

Unlikely == unlikely. That there are 100 users that really (think) they
need it doesn't make it fly. Need to consider how much it costs to cater
for them, and if they are few and the cost is high, it just isn't
worthwhile. The crux of the problem is that from the chair in front of the
machine-to-be-installed the costs look a whole lot different than from the
chair of the engineer who has to implement it and of the other one who has
to deal with the fallout...

Note again, the talk is about an "Everything" install, but a quite strange
one: No "languages I don't use", please (How is the installer to know I am
confortable with English, Spanish and German? Others wouldn't install those
and want Japanese...); no "useless packages" (who is to say a package like
gnome-screensaver is/isn't useless?); "just Core" but "all I might need
once in a blue moon" (i.e., Extras + the kitchen sink, please); "spare the
user painful downloads via dialup" just so she suffers from painful updates
all the time.

Rahul is right: Come up with /concrete/ cases of off-the-wall
configurations that can't be handled nicely right now, and suggest ways to
handle them sanely. Give guesstimates of numbers of users. Note that one-off
power-user profiles won't cut it too much, as those (should) know their way
around and so be able to tweak the install to their heart's content anyway.

Installing your favorite operating system is /not/ ordering a package deal
at $RANDOM_FAST_FOOD_CHAIN, please.
-- 
Dr. Horst H. von Brand                   User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica                     Fono: +56 32 654431
Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria              +56 32 654239
Casilla 110-V, Valparaiso, Chile                Fax:  +56 32 797513