Re: really rough first draft of release announcement

[Christian Meder <christian.meder@utoronto.ca>]

On May 29, Bruce Perens wrote
> From: Christian Meder <christian.meder@utoronto.ca>
> > But the sentence with "Debian space missions" is a perhaps a bit too
> > strong.
> 
> OK
> 
> 	Two more space missions carrying Debian are already scheduled.

Far better.

> 
> > 
> > > Mention "alien", but don't dwell so much on it.
> > 
> > OK
> > 
> >     We were the first to provide automatic conversion of package types,
> >     and you can automaticaly convert between RPM, Slackware, and Debian
> >     packages.
> 
> Look at Joey's proposal for clarification.

Are you going to clarify this ?

> 
> > I would move it higher.
> 
> * Free on-line support from our large user community on the debian-user
>   mailing list. Many questions are answered in minutes, with positive results.

Great.

> 
> > I think an important Debian advantage compared to RedHat's ftp install
> > is that we don't have to search in any archives when upgrading.
> 
> Is this an automatic process for them?
> 
> 	* Upgrade automaticaly via FTP.

I think the problem is that Redhat claims automatic too but it's IMHO
not as easy as our ftp upgrade. Anybody can propose something to shed
light on the difference ?

> 
> > * our bug-list is publically available and we encourage all Debian
> > users to give feedback to the Debian maintainers via the bug handling
> > system and so to help fixing bugs or improving packages 
> 
> Shortened to appear in two lines lines in the announcement:
> 	* We don't keep our bug-list secret - it's on our web server,
> 	  and every user has the power to access our bug system and add their
> 	  feedback.

Could we change the "has the power to" to "is encouraged to" ?

>  
> > * We don't keep our bug-list secret - it's on our web server.
> 
> It's kind of a jab at the guys who do keep their bug-list secret.
> There are a lot of them! Does it really read poorly?

I don't like the jab. Others care to comment ?

> 
> > > 
> > > > I'd like it if we could somehow convince the developer community that
> > > > is creating "contrib RPM's" for Red Hat that they would be better off
> > > > developing for Debian instead - ie. inclusion in the base distribution,
> > > > the bug system, wide distribution, not making money for someone else,
> > > > supportive user and developer community, fame and recognition,
> > > > more of a global focus, etc.
> > 
> > This is a very good point.
> 
> I think I'd like to put this in a second announcement that is a direct
> solicitation for developers.

OK

> 
> > What do you mean with ONLY 125 ? Try maintaining 125 packages ;-)
> 
>     * 974 entirely free software packages. 125 more than Debian 1.2, and the
>       largest Linux distribution available.

Very good.

> 
> > Another point which is IMHO an distinguishing feature about Debian is
> > our goal of integration of the whole system. This goal produces such
> > terrific packages like our menu system (thanks, Joost) or dwww
> > (thanks, Jim and previously Lars). Debian isn't only concerned with
> > package management but reaching further ... (ugly marketing english
> > ;-)
> 
> Text, please?

Let's see:

* Debian is striving for better integration of the whole GNU/Linux
system. Debian maintainers are therefore developing tools for easier
interaction between different packages. Two examples with initial
functional prototypes in 1.3 are a menu system for the installed
window managers (menu) and a Debian documentation - HTML interface
(dwww).

Shorten and rip apart at will ;-)

> 
> > This paragraph shouldn't give the impression that I want to neglect
> > the dpkg work which is done. In fact my impression is that Klee puts
> > a lot of work in dpkg at the moment (thanks).
> 
> Yes, but unfortunately it didn't get into the release. It's in
> unstable.

Yes, I know. The remark was meant to thank and encourage Klee :-}

> 
> > probably we should even include Dale's upgrade notes to ease our lives
> > on debian-user later ;-)
> 
>     To Upgrade From an Older Debian System
> 
>     You can upgrade automaticaly via FTP, or from CD or hard disk.
>     With this release, it is very important to upgrade our "dpkg" package
>     tool first, before you upgrade other packages in an older Debian system.
>     To do this, change into the Debian-1.3/binary-i386/base directory on
>     your CD or hard disk copy of Debian. As root, run these commands:
> 
> 	    dpkg -i ldso_*.deb
> 	    dpkg -i libc5_*.deb
> 	    dpkg -i dpkg_*.deb dpkg-ftp_*.deb
> 	    dpkg --purge --force-depends texbin
> 	    dpkg --clear-available

Guy pointed out to swap the last two commands. We should discuss
Joey's idea of writing a small script. 

> 
>     Once that has been done, you should be able to upgrade the entire system
>     automaticaly using our "dselect" tool.
> 
>     In an upgrade from Debian 1.1 to Debian 1.3, on a system where Debian
>     1.2 has never been installed, you can expect to run dselect about 4
>     times to complete the installation. There will be a number of error
>     messages leading to termination of "dselect", but these are an artifact
>     of the package order and your skipped upgrade to 1.2, and can be safely
>     ignored.

This is very good. Perhaps we should mention the famous Install -
Configure cycling in dselect to upgrade. I think the cycling usually
solves most problems.

Greetings,

				Christian

-- 
Christian Meder, email: christian.meder@utoronto.ca

What's the railroad to me ?
I never go to see
Where it ends.
It fills a few hollows,
And makes banks for the swallows, 
It sets the sand a-blowing,
And the blackberries a-growing.
                      (Henry David Thoreau)


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