Casey Witt <kcwitt(a)gmail.com> writes:
I also want to rescind my suggestion to include xss-lock, and
recommend
not to include thunar and firefox (some users are starting to go the
flatpak direction so don't want stuff such as firefox on the host - I
might be one of them, but don't know yet).
After reading through some responses to an earlier post where I
suggested adding a couple extra things I have personally swung
completely the other way.
My current thinking is that the base spin should only include the i3
sanctioned utilities (i3lock, i3status, etc.) and a terminal (seems
uxrvt has already been selected for this).
Any experienced i3 users are likely opinionated already (and anything
extra in the base spin could probably be stepping on their toes).
An experienced i3 user is not really the target audience of this spin
(imho). They'll probably just grab the server installation ISO and run
their installation script/playbook or will even deploy their own
prebuild image.
Any new i3 users would probably find a very limited package set
underwhelming (when compared to the other spins). Whereas no packages
with an explanation of why, and how to proceed might produce a better
experience for them.
The Qubes installer (which is also Anaconda) has a "SOFTWARE SELECTION"
section. Although it currently only has one option (xfce de), it seems
that they intend to ultimately allow the user to select different
desktop environments in the future (see screen shot in the "Installation
summary" section at
https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/installation-guide/).
Does anybody know how to add this "SOFTWARE SELECTION" section to the i3
spin Anaconda installer? Then the base i3 spin could be minimal, and
there could be a couple options with progressively more stuff thrown in
such as:
* nothing - don't install anything extra
* minimal - add things such as xss-lock (ie. things recommended in the
default i3 config)
* functional - add things that a typical user would want (ie. thunar,
firefox, bluetooth)
* full - rice it up (ie. music player, calendar, etc.)
No idea if that's possible, but it would be nice.
Also, I have been experimenting with using flatpaks instead of .rpm
where it makes sense, and so far the results seem pretty good. I guess
the use of flatpaks will trend up over time. But it does introduce the
complexity to spins regarding what would be an rpm (ie. i3status,
xss-lock, probably thunar, etc. - basic utilities that make the system
work) and what should be flatpak (ie. firefox, music player, etc. -
desktop apps that the user interacts with for work or amusement). Is
there even a way to install flatpaks during install? Is this something
that should be considered, or should flatpaks continue to be completely
ignored in favor of a 100% .rpm install?
I am not 100% sure, but I don't think that Anaconda allows you to
install flatpaks (searching for flatpak in the docs yields no
results[1]).
Cheers,
Dan
Footnotes:
[1]
https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/search.html?q=flatpak...