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keep it light

Posted: 16. Jun 2009, 19:15
by gapan
I think Zenwalk got bloated with time. Maybe we should keep the base installation as light as possible? No gnome libs at all for example? I don't think we can avoid openoffice in any case. But apart from being big, openoffice doesn't need extra dependencies.

Re: keep it light

Posted: 16. Jun 2009, 23:17
by JRD
If it's possible, yeah why not.
Let's users installed what they need.

Re: keep it light

Posted: 17. Jun 2009, 02:04
by thenktor
Of course we can avoid OO on the iso. Just add no office tool to the iso and let the user decide which office tool he wants to install later. In my opinion most user that want to use an office suite will install OO, but there are really a lot of users, that never will use an office suite, too:
- many just use internet and perhaps mp3 playing and cd burning
- other ones just need a "Word" clone to write some letters and nothing more (this is the biggest user group IMHO)

Just my 2 cents to save a lot of space on ISO :P

Re: keep it light

Posted: 17. Jun 2009, 04:02
by Sparky
I almost never use OO actually, generally I just use KWord on KDE or Abiword on everything else. Of course it might be nice for some users, but I guess that depends how much disk space on the ISO we are willing to spend on that chance.

Re: keep it light

Posted: 17. Jun 2009, 10:37
by JRD
Hum I'm not agree.
The force of Linux distro is that when installed, you have everything ok for common tasks.
Writing and reaeding a formated document (including binary .doc files), a stylesheet and a presentation file is really necessary.
If you don't use it, I know people that do. I installed some Zenwalk 5.x and 6.x out there to some people. The first thing they noticed is that everything is installed (browser, media players, document processors, some games, instant messenger tools).
Abiword is a piece of shit (sorry for the dev of this soft). I don't know any software that even read .ppt files apart from OOo.
People wants to communicate. Let's help them.
Downloading and installing OOo after the install is not a good idea for many reasons :
- even if the package is smaller now than before, it's a bit huge to download. The user could have a bad Internet connection (and have grab the CD from a friend)
- user could not have Internet at home, then... no OOo.
- one more step, than - discussed on Zenwalk - more than a majority will install it by the way : lost of time (especially for adminsitrators)

I like the latest way of spliting the OOo package in two, with writer, calc and presentation present in the main package, and the rest on the repo.

Re: keep it light

Posted: 17. Jun 2009, 12:57
by gapan
So far we've talked about having an option to install a core or a complete system. Maybe we could make that 3?

- core
- base X, with default DE (xfce) and a browser only
- full

As for the splitting of OOo, I'm not very fond of it. People might actually need math or whatever is left out and then they'll have to download everything separately, and JRD's points about including OOo are valid again for the part we leave out.

Re: keep it light

Posted: 17. Jun 2009, 14:11
by JRD
OK :)

Re: keep it light

Posted: 17. Jun 2009, 15:20
by Shador
I like that idea of a Core DE choice. It's makes it easier also for less experienced users to get a lightweight and customized system without the struggles of a core installation.

Personally I also prefer to have a non-splitted OOo package, that's just easier to handle and less misleading.

Re: keep it light

Posted: 17. Jun 2009, 17:44
by .:B:.
I agree with JRD. You *need* to provide an office suite on your ISO. Every reviewer (yes, I know) will point it out as a drawback that you have to download it afterwards. Users will feel the same - they pull the ISO in and expect an all-in-one solution (like Zenwalk was).

A possible solution would be providing an ISO with OpenOffice and one without (or with Gnome Office). I think given Gnome Office's size (if I am not mistaken) people who'd leave OOo be wouldn't be bothered by installing Gnome Office afterwards of course (except that it has still to be done).
gapan wrote: As for the splitting of OOo, I'm not very fond of it. People might actually need math or whatever is left out and then they'll have to download everything separately, and JRD's points about including OOo are valid again for the part we leave out.
I agree. The splitting out is purely cosmetic. The common base is the biggest chunk of the whole package, and you'll always need that, whatever program you install from the suite.

Once people realise that they won't really vote for split-out setups anymore ;)

Re: keep it light

Posted: 17. Jun 2009, 19:20
by thenktor
If there is an office suite on the ISO, it has to be OO. Only for a KDE version OO perhaps can be kept out and Koffice could be used.

BTW: The OO people are working on better KDE integration, too (KDE file dialogues, ...) ;)