Fedora extras and the distribution size

[Gareth Russell]

I certainly agree with this - but the problem is, surely don't we run the
risk of alienating some people? The KDE crowd (which is a fair amount of
people) for example woudln't appreciate having their packages being
sidelined so easily.

The other issue would also be whether or not we run the risk of alienating
those users on dial up. Who have to download a lot of packages, just to
get their system how they want it.

<quote who="Nathan Robertson">
> Hi,
>
> In the past few days, we've debated how to get the number of CDs down,
> and "move xxx to extras" is a common "solution". Problem is, everyone's
> "xxx" is different, and the line between what belongs in Core vs.
> extras is gray.
>
> Consider this: Define core as "an interesting and functionally complete
> system". Define extras as "niche packages, and packages that
> *functionally* duplicate something already in core".
>
> So, FC consists of a desktop, a browser, a mail client, an MTA, a web
> server, etc. You can install a system with all the functionality. If
> your choice of one of those components isn't in core then you can grab
> it from extras, just like we used to do from the Red Hat Powertools CD
> years ago (alternative terminals, window managers, irc clients, etc.
> used to live there). Maybe this means shipping extras CDs as options
> (as was the case with Powertools). Maybe an optional "KDE extras CD" is
> worth considering.
>
> In the above scenario, we all end up installing a system from half the
> number of CDs, and get 90% of what we want. Then we grab the 10% of
> "personal favourites" we prefer from extras. Everyone elses favourite
> 10% doesn't affect the size of my download then, and everyone remains
> happy.
>
> I believe that core should be about shipping one tool to perform each
> function, and extras are optional replacements and packages that are
> slightly left-field. By doing this, I think the core distribution would
> be down to at most two CDs, which I believe people who don't have
> unlimited amounts of bandwidth would appreciate.
>
> Anyway, the main point of my post is that functionally duplicate
> packages are the candidates for moving from core to extras.
>
> Nathan.
>
>
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-- 
Gareth Russell