[gNewSense-users] Re: Make MIPS gNewSense from Debian packages?

[Daniel Clark]

Danny Clark wrote:
> Fabian Ezequiel Gallina wrote:
>> 2008/12/23 Graziano Sorbaioli <address@hidden>:
>>> Is there some reason we should duplicate x86_32 and x86_64 architectures?
>>>
>>> Why don't we have only the debian ones?
>>>
>>> Most people I know of feel more comfortable with debian than with ubuntu.
>>>
>>> And as someone already said, from a beginner point of view there are not
>>> so many differences imho.
>>> Newbie users watch to the desktop enviroment and gui (gnome for both
>>> debian and ubuntu).
>>>
>>> What do you think?
>>>
>> I think Graziano is right, however I have to tell you that the default
>> desktop environment installed by Ubuntu and by Debian are a little bit
>> different, being Ubuntu the most user friendly. I think this has to be
>> because Ubuntu contains more updated packages of gnome than Debian
>> (even in Lenny) but I think and hope this will change in no longer
>> time (after the release of Lenny).
>>
>> It could be a task for gNewSense to not only free Debian's main
>> repository and kernel but also enhance the desktop experience by
>> making the necessary changes to its default configuration.
>>
>> I think that basing the distribution on Debian will give to gNewSense
>> the possibility to run on the many platforms that Debian already
>> supports (including MIPS of course).
>>
>> Please take this just as an user opinion.
> 
> Ubuntu vs. Debian is like emacs vs vi - people talk a lot and everyone
> loses. There are good points on both sides. I'd like for gNewSense (or
> gNewSense and whatever we decide to call a Debian-derived gNewSense if
> it happens) to not lose and have the widest possible audience.

Another point is that both big and small sites have infrastructures /
procedures / custom packages etc based around one or the other; asking
them to change might require deep changes that would be a roadblock for
adoption.

For example at the FSF we use Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 in most places, because
we want to be able to switch to gNewSense as soon as gNewSense supports
64-bit architectures (we run Xen and other things which really want
64-bit).

Since we are of course very careful not to purchase any non-free
hardware, moving from Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 to gNewSense should be 100%
non-disruptive / trivial; but moving to a new gNewSense based on Debian
would be very disruptive (we unfortunately have a decent amount of
fragile configs / legacy things dependent on very specific software, as
many sites do), and moving to gNewSense knowing that there will never be
another Ubuntu LTS based released would also be less likely to happen.

-- 
Daniel JB Clark   | Sys Admin, Free Software Foundation
pobox.com/~dclark | http://www.fsf.org/about/staff#danny

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