Getting Debian
One of the issues that made me look into the redesign of Debian.org was my
experience of trying to download the correct installer and later trying to
download the testing installer.
The most frustrating thing was not finding you way back to the desired page after having located it the day before.
Some reasons you easily loose your way and move in circles are
- Links are interspersed in verbose text
- Links are rarely grouped or written in a concice and clear way
- Links to the same page have very diffrent names
- Documents have very similar names
- Documents have very similar content
- The way to solve all issues seems to have been to add another link
- There is a reluctance to provide certain links (testing installer)
Comparisons
For some test with small changes to the /distrib and CD pages
see below. Please note that only the distib and cd links work. (only 3 pages) and that these are only early sketches that improve things in a very small way (if at all)
I'm experimenting with using green colour to signal downloads.
What could be done to improve things further
- Create new Getting Debian page that:
- Presents direct links for the $number
most common architectures
- Links to the one page with all
architectures and all media
- Offers only two types of media.
- Clear link to the one faq that is
media/downloads related
- Links to an updated ports page that guides you to and gives some info about the correct architecture for you.
- Create one FAQ with all media/downloading questions.
- Create one page with all media/architectures. Perhaps this is the
Debian installer page.
- Update the ports page to become more informative and helpful when choosing documentation/download. Link to it whenever the user is presented with a list of ports.
Questions
- How important are the "Full Sets"? By now they must be a niche
thing, how can they become easy to find for only those who need
them but out of the way for those who don't?
- Can distrib/ and CD/ merge? Alternatively move distrib/ from "Getting Debian" to a page for those who want to mirror/clone/distribute the whole project. Has the meaning of distrib/ and CD/ drifted over the years?
- Is CD still a relevant section?
- Are all netinst media still useful?
- Can one or two install media become "recommended" allowing the others to resign to a special page?
- Are bandwith and disrupted downloads still a big enough issue to require all those tools and protocols. Can some be put to the side?
Links and pages related to "Getting Debian"
The following is a list of the pages related to "Getting
Debian" all relevant links of each page are listed. It's clear
that there is a lot of duplication, similar pages and unconsistent
naming of pages making wandering in circles all to easy.
- distrib as a
means of getting debian
-
Improved pages and links?
This is list is in a very initial sketchy state
Required Pages
- Release page
- Release Notes
- Install Manual
- Debian Reference
- FAQ
- i386 media
- amd64 media
- Full list of media and architectures
- Old releases, Testing, Unstable
