Re: Newbie Idea

[jfm2@club-internet.fr]

> 
> The mail from "Newbie needs help" gave me an idea. 
> Why not have a version of Independence without all the 
> programming applications? MS Windows does
> not ship w/Visual C or Visual Basic. It would make the

The reason Microsoft does not ship Visual Basic with Windows is
because it allows them to _sell_ it to programmers.  In Linux the
compiler is free so there is no reason to let it out: Linux philosophy
is to put as much stuff as possible as long as you have space on CD
and manpower to package the software and avoid additional geek
software.

Well there will be a limit: too much stuff confuses the user so we
should not include everyhthing available under the sun.  We will have
to avoid redundancy.


> download smaller and maybe more attractive to a number
> of people who would otherwise not bother to try.

No.  People outside North America cannot download real distribs.
Solution will come the day we will get install through modem so the
user will be able to select what it is interested in.  In addition
next version will be available on CD

Ibn the interim it would be possible to build a subset but who is
volunteering for doing it?

> Lets face it, most of the new users moving to Linux are
> coming from Windows and most are not hackers or
> programmers. Most are not going to try to rebuild their
> kernel either. Their looking for something different to use

First: In 1999 recompiling the kernel is stupid

Second: In 1999 recompiling the kernel is stupid

Third: In 1999 recompiling the kernel is stupid.

Except when you do it for fun.

About people who advocate kernel recompiling for "optimizing it" they
don't know what they are speaking about.

I wrote an article on the subject


> other than MS products to scratch an itch. If they wanted
> to try programming later, make an upgrade available.
> 

I certainly don't want including more libraries or programming tools
except when it could have an influence on the kind of software we
want: eg it is fair to include tools for writing games but not for
writing network diagnostic tools.

But I feel that for PR we must avoid being regarded as a crippled
distribution good for newbies. There will be wanabes in news groups
telling "Indy is only a toy, that is not for people like me. Real men
don't use it".  I think we must be able to reply: "You can do with
Indy everything you can do with standard distribs and do it the hard
way if you want.  You can also do things you cannot do with others or
make them easier than with others if you just want your job done
without being distracted by things who are not related to it. Indy is
not for newbies, it is for smart people who don't play macho"

-- 
			Jean Francois Martinez

Project Independence: Linux for the Masses
http://www.independence.seul.org