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[bug#59822,guix-artwork] website: base: home: Add 'DOWNLOAD LATEST' button.

Message ID 86o7r53vbi.fsf@gmail.com
State New
Headers show
Series [bug#59822,guix-artwork] website: base: home: Add 'DOWNLOAD LATEST' button. | expand

Commit Message

Simon Tournier Jan. 11, 2023, 4:11 p.m. UTC 
Hi Florianm

On Mon, 09 Jan 2023 at 20:35, "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <pelzflorian@pelzflorian.de> wrote:

> Yes without internal links really is not nice, but despite all that,
> wouldn’t newcomers feel confused if we present them a choice?  Wouldn’t
> newcomers who download a non-working latest put the blame on GNU Guix?

I speak for myself when using a random project elsewhere.  Usually, I do
not feel confused if it is really clear what is the recommended product
and what is the experimental one; and what I can expect from each
product.

And when this distinction is clear, I do not blame this very project if
the experimental is not working as expected.  Somehow, I consider that I
am able to make my own choices. :-)

To me, the situation is already clear with Guix.  Maybe we could improve
the wording although I find it clear. ;-)

The recommendation is the release.  From the front webpage, it is where
the newcomer is redirected when clicking on the large Download button.

Moreover, the top menu Download lists Standard or Latest.  The Standard
redirects to the release.  And the Latest redirects to a webpage using
the term “development snapshots”, which is pretty clear, IMHO.

My suggestion was about discoverability.

As currently, keep very clear that the release download webpage
(standard) is the recommendation.  From this webpage, I am suggesting to
add a mention to the experimental (development snapshots) webpage.  For
instance, such download-latest contains Hurd or Pinebook images.

Well, WDYT about this patch?
Cheers,
simon

Comments

pelzflorian (Florian Pelz) Jan. 12, 2023, 5:56 p.m. UTC | #1 
Hi Simon,

Our vision differs in

1) the downloads page mentioning latest and

2) the top menu mentioning latest.

About 1), although I agree adding your text to the downloads page is an
improvement for discoverability, I don’t like that your patch gives
people the impression they get any advantage from experimental builds.

*A disagreement.*

About 2), the top menu.

Consider a user who reads little but wants to try Guix.  And that user
does not read the main part of the homepage but follows the top menu.
Such people exist, I guess, and are important.  I claim that

a) the distinction between standard and latest falsely suggests that
   latest is more current, more up-to-date, more appealing.

   *We are in disagreement about if the distinction is clear.*

b) And I claim that in contrast to the past situation when the
   distinction was necessary, now that we have 1.4.0 and its more
   debuggable installer image, there will be no purpose in advertising
   latest anymore, that is, no advertisement of ci.guix.gnu.org images
   is needed.

   *This b) is the same disagreement as in 1).*

IMHO we should hide the latest category in the top menu and make two new
categories.

One Hurd category could cater to users with hardware that can run Hurd,
who like Hurd’s features and who don’t like that Linux-libre is
monolithic and has bad GPLv2 licensing.  But as of now, unlike Debian,
Guix’s Hurd only runs on QEMU?

One ARM category could offer, well, I don’t exactly know, is the
Pinebook Pro image an upgradeable Guix System or a transient image?

These offerings are not polished.

I will not take the time to think
about a patch removing latest now though.

Regards,
Florian
diff mbox series

Patch

diff --git a/website/apps/download/templates/download.scm b/website/apps/download/templates/download.scm
index bcf3cd2..34d1d5f 100644
--- a/website/apps/download/templates/download.scm
+++ b/website/apps/download/templates/download.scm
@@ -65,7 +65,9 @@  Package manager") #\|)
           ,(G_ `(a (@ (href ,(gnu-url "software/shepherd"))) "GNU Shepherd"))
           " init system. Alternately, GNU Guix
           can be installed as an additional package manager on top of an
-          installed Linux-based system."))
+          installed Linux-based system.  For other images including GNU Hurd,
+please consider the"
+          ,(G_ `(a (@ (href ,(guix-url "download-latest/"))) "experimental snapshots."))))
 
       (div
        (@ (class "centered-text"))