[Tfug] List of packages required to make a good Debian Desktop system

[Glen Pfeiffer]

Claude Rubinson wrote:
> I don't recall where I learned the syntax but I believe that it 
> was the manual.  Aptitude is really powerful but, as you say, 
> they've geared the documentation toward the GUI which I also 
> don't like.  (To be honest, I've only entered the aptitude GUI 
> a handful of times and I find it pretty non-intuitive.)
> 

I found a reference that was helpful:
http://wiki.debian.org/DRPackage

And on the topic of searching, this section covered using quotes 
around search terms:
http://wiki.debian.org/DRPackage#head-795416928d8e56f86a450ec579d8d7cd3b219c52


Claude Rubinson wrote:
> Glen Pfeiffer wrote:
>> I have considered scripting the install which would modify 
>> sources.list, perform an update, and then install all the 
>> packages. I could use your idea for the last step. On the 
>> other hand, most of the boxes I work on only use a subset of 
>> the packages. For example only three will have the children's 
>> games installed.
> 
> It sounds like what you're really talking about is coming up 
> with your own installer.  I wonder how difficult it might be to 
> modify the standard Debian installer (the new one) to include, 
> for example, just your preferred packages, permit people to 
> install just a handful of custom defined tasks (are they still 
> called tasks?  you know, the larger collections of packages, 
> e.g., "kid's games" or whatever).
> 
That's certainly an interesting idea. But I think the overhead 
involved in redistributing would be higher than I am interested 
in. However, maybe I can make a Debian package that does what I 
want. I am a little fuzzy on what can be done during an install, 
but it would be nice if I could have it modify sources.list, and 
then install the packages I want. Then again, I am sure many of 
you would never consider it if it automatically did all that.

Maybe it would be better to write an application that allows you 
to pick which packages you want to install, and to choose to have 
sources.list modified.

Then again, I remember reading about Automatix which does 
something similar, albeit very differently. 
http://www.getautomatix.com/

-- 
Glen