Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Sukneet Basuta <sukneet AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 11:50 AM, Ismael Luceno <ismael.luceno AT gmail.com> wrote: 

When it comes to visibility, IMO, where we have our repositories is
completely irrelevant, and contributing to Source Mage is already far
easier than contributing to other distributions (e.g. updating a spell
is dead easy). We could improve the help quill provides, we could make
it even easier to use, but that's about it.

+1 

  

Now, what I find important is that we definitely fail in a few areas
that are critical. The two main problems that make users think of SM
as something of low quality are: upgrades failing in mysterious ways,
something quite common, and the fact that documentation is somewhat
scarce.

Also, although less important, most are unhappy about having to
configure every minute detail the first time (this is something we
could easily solve, without compromising our goals), and the fact that
we don't have up-to-date ISOs (is that still a problem?).

IMO, those 3 points are what keep new users away. People like to be lazy which is why gentoo, CRUX, and even arch's ABS are more popular than Source Mage. I'm not saying we should be like them--I actually like how Source Mage lets you configure every detail--but if attracting new users is the goal, then yes allowing them to be lazy is a good start. FreeBSD's ports is somehow able to get away with being very configurable though.

@Ismael I encourage you to propose something if you have an idea and see what people say.

New users tend to get frustrated when they can't even install the distro. I know I did when I first used Source Mage. I actually gave up after the first few times and tried Lunar, which just worked. I think I ended up somehow finding the beta iso, which ended up working. Basesystem and the install system need to be rock solid.

I know...I know...people have been complaining about this stuff for years and they have yet to be fixed. I don't have the time to do it/I'm more interested in other things these days, so I'm not complaining or anything. I'm just letting people know my opinion if they are interested.

What ever happened to Vlad's new website? Using that as Source Mage's website would be a step in the right direction imo.