[Gnumed-devel] Re: Which distributions (distros) of Linux are recommended for GnuMed?

[Andreas Tille]

On Wed, 19 May 2004, Karsten Hilbert wrote:

> > Although Karsten and Sebastian are satisfied with SUSE (and it is what
> > my local IT people have contemplated installing) I am wondering whether
> > for a "fresh / from scratch" installation that doctors will actually
> > use, it is better to recommend Debian?
> Ultimately yes.
I would like to add that you are advised best not to try the Woody version
of Debian which is currently in the state "stable".  The future release
which is called Sarge is in a very good shape and easily installable by
the Beta-Installer images.  Just tell me if you need further advise.

> > Does the above make a case for installation from a debian package being
> > preferable to downloading and installing from source?
> Surely.
... especially if I finally reached my long announced plan to make the
packages ready for the Debian mirror.  Unfortunately I my time was bound
to general Debian-Med related technologies and not to special application
packaging.  But I managed to attract so many people to help in this field
that I'm positive to come back to GnuMed in the near future.

> > Should it be easy, and advantageous, to advocate for IT people to
> > download, examine and learn from a debian package as an alternative or
> Surely but not yet.
What do you mean by "learn from a Debian package"?
Learning how to package stuff is not really hard but absolutely not
necessary for users and most of application developers.  It is nice to
have one or two programmers in a project who have basic knowledge about
this packaging stuff, but not necessary.

> > adjunct to installing from source if for some reason installing from
> > source is a good idea?
> Source is obviously closer to the current state. We don't
> really have a significantly large stable feature set yet for
> packages to offer.
The question is how often we would need packages of GnuMed.  Once I'm
happy with my packages I think about a monthly check out of the CVS
version.  An alternative would be a "triggered" package building in
the sense that one of the core developers tell me: "Hey, this snapshot
is worth packaging."

Kind regards

          Andreas.

PS: Who of the GnuMed people will attend the Libre Software Meeting in
    Bordeaux (6.-10. July)?