Make the Debian CDs Better by Installing popcon

JayBonci writes "Not popcorn, popcon! (Short for popularity-contest) According to a recent message posted to debian-devel-announce, popcon numbers are being used to determine how things get arranged on the 13 CDs of the upcoming Debian stable release. Participation so far has been good, but the project could use more numbers from a broader user base. Please take a moment to install the package 'popularity-contest,' and help us make the distro better by allowing it to send us anonymous package usage statistics. You can see the results at Popularity Contest page."

Comments

I have this...

[byolinux]

Here's hoping I can get xbill to the top of the list.

This is a really good idea

[dealsites]

As a Linux newbie (currently don't have Linux installed, but have used it and plan to install it soon), it would be nice to know which are the most popular packages. Most people would like to have an idea of what the more experienced users use, and thus would like to try it themselves. In addition to knowing the most popular packages, it would probably be a quicker install be having the best ones at the beginning of the installation process instead of having to swap CDs too many times.

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Re:This is a really good idea

[ameoba]

The thing about the Debian install process is that you don't need all 13 CDs. After you do the base install, you scan the CDs that you feel like using and they get added to your local list of available packages (be it none, 1,2 or all 13). The first 2 CDs cover most of the stuff that you need to get the system working; by the time you get to the last disc, we're talking about some pretty obscure stuff that only has 3 users (2 of them are the devs and the 3rd is the guy making the package).

This is already a pretty reasonable distibution of files on the first 2 discs (the installer, OTOH still needs a lot of work; the new installer is a bit nicer than the old one but it doesn't really work all the time & there's some inconsistancies in it (like when you're partitioning drives, the drive labels in fdisk aren't the same as the names you see when you're assigning mountpoints to drives (which isn't even able to recognize swap devices as such & call them swap by default))) but it could always be perfected a bit. I have to wonder why they can't extract this from the logs on the mirrors tho...

Re:This is a really good idea

[C10H14N2]

It's pretty easy. 90% of the packages are installed by less, usually FAR less, than half the users. Although, I must admit I found it humorous that the package tracking the usage was installed by less than the total number of users ostensibly reporting.

WTF?

Re:This is a really good idea

[Penguinshit]

Actually, the best way is to just use Disc 1, get the base installation, and then do the rest via network (assuming you're on broadband - I shudder to think what an installation would be like over dialup).

This way you get the latest "stable" (oxymoron, I know) and all of the security updates as well.

I install Debian this way all the time (well, every time I'm doing a fresh installation).

Re:This is a really good idea

[lspd]

Actually, the best way is to just use Disc 1, get the base installation, and then do the rest via network (assuming you're on broadband - I shudder to think what an installation would be like over dialup).

When you can get a DVD+-R to work in another computer, the DVD's (1 for stable, 2 for testing or unstable) are quite nice. If you have hard-drive space to burn you can also grab the ISO's and mount them using loopback devices.

It's a failure.

[Mr. Darl McBride]

I hate to point it out, but the first kernel-image is in 2794th place.

Re:13 CD's!?

[tloh]

There are many boxes, particularly older hardware, which does not have a DVD-ROM drive.

And this

[JoeBaldwin]

Is when using Debian to install gnaughty bites you in the ass.

I just installed with the Beta 3 installer

[cyber_rigger]

The automatic hardware detection is nice.

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

Someone has to say it..

[3DKnight]

I would still go with Popcorn.. at least their kernels taste better!

oh, i kill me...

Re:13 CD's!?

[raindown]

I asked myself this question when buying Unreal Tournament 2004 the other day and when the employee of the store told me they didn't receive any of the Special Edition DVD version. I was kind of baffled as to why they didn't make it a DVD only release, but it kind of makes sense to me.. It's not entirely safe to assume that that many people have DVD-ROMs, at least from a manufacturing perspective. I think that when you register the game you can send your system specs in thus allowing th company to know... Sorry for getting kind of off-topic but the same concept stands true in this case I think. Think of how many people have cd-burners compared to dvd-burners? Probably a big ratio.. so it makes more sense to put everything on a format that almost everyone has access to. (Note: ALMOST)

I don't trust it.

[Mr. Darl McBride]

The results are rigged!!!

emacs: (emacsen-common) -- 317th place
vi: (nvi) -- 208th place

I'd sooner believe we awarded Bush the popular vote!

Re:If this were TIVO

[El]

Voluntarily giving up your privacy with fully informed consent is much different then sneaking in spyware without telling you about it. Those that are paranoid about privacy simply won't install it.

Partial list of most popular apps...

[cliffiecee]

gawk
talk
date
wine
grep
unzip
strip
touch
finger
mount
fsck
more
yes
eject
umount
sl eep

(Stop groaning. Someone had to do it.)

popularity contest package

[MrWim]

The package popularity-contest is 42nd on the list with 18 less installs than the top packages, so how did these 18 people submit thier scores to the popularity contest?

vi/vim vs. emacs

[Peaker]

When comparing the popularity of the two, do not forget that vi is fairly standard and that vim is fairly small.

This means that whoever uses emacs should have no problem also installing vi/vim, while those who use vi/vim wouldn't typically install emacs/xemacs, which are much larger.

Re:Will Debian actually release a new STABLE?

[bfree]

Debian will release the next STABLE version when it's ready, always their answer. You can think of debian stable as having always done the sort of stuff RedHat, Mandrake and Suse are all looking to do now, build long term releases not "forcing" full system upgrades every few months. That all being said even Debian are hoping to speed up the release process, the next release will be the first release to come out of testing and is ironing out the kinks in that system. Also, it is moving rapidly towards a release. Debian-installer is now usable (for certain values of usable) on 6 platforms and the release critical bugs are dropping down to where a release should be quickly achievable (once all the main pieces are in place). I would be surprised if debian doesn't release before the Autumn (I'd guess June/July).

As the other reply to your post pointed out though, if stable doesn't do you testing (or even unstable) should do it!

Re:Architectures: "Unknown" Holds #2

[Tri]

Unknown means they are running popcon from woody, rather than sarge/sid. The older version of popcon did not send architecture data, while the newer one does.

Um...

[msimm]

Yes. You see commercial organizations do it all the time, some of it bugs us (spyware/adware/webbugs/cross-site cookies), but a lot of it doesn't (Neilson ratings/consumer surveys/warrenty questionaires). I think we all know that to design a good product you need to listen to your consumer base.

In fact this has been one of the big pieces that has been missing with Linux distro's. We throw as many applications into them as we can, having no accurate idea whats being used and whats just in the way. This is sort of a break-through when you think about it and I applaud the Debian's refeshingly long-sightedness.

Add to that that this is a open source project (under the GPL and written in perl) and you end up with a true rarity, an honest (and auditable) marketing tool. Don't like it? Don't install it.

This looks to me like a usefull tool in the fight for increased usability. OS hackers may not be able to do the tele polls and the in-mall customer questionaires, but they sure as hell can figure out how to get that information. And we sort of owe it to then to tell them a little something about the products they spend so much time (and care) working on for us.

Just my $.02.

Good idea reasons...

[msimm]

I agree with the above poster, but why this needs to catch on:

1) We currently have a 0 feedback model for most distro (said distros forum and Slashdot aside).
2) It WILL tell the developers of a distro a bit about how their distro is being used (lots of data, the deeper they dig the more they learn).
3) Other distros need to see this as a *requirement*. Popularity-popusmearity, this is customer feed-back! Guess how many times I've been asked how I use my favorite flavor of Linux over the past 5 years?

I think Debian has hit a little bit of gold here and I hope to see it expand to other distros. These guys work hard to write 100's of useful apps and compile them into a useful operating environment, more information can only help that process so I'm into it.