Juan Camilo Prada ([info]juankprada) wrote,
@ 2008-06-10 13:16:00
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Entry tags:fedora, websites

Some more changes to the website
There has been a lot of movement in the Fedora Websites team lately. Some new proposals for a new design for the planet has been posted on the mailing list and they have been brought to the meeting getting a lot of attention and feedback (great work Craig).

Once again its time to show some changes to the Fedora's main site (http://fedoraproject.org) that I've proposed and that are also a subject that still need some discussion before it gets mature enough to be a real change for the site. This time the changes focused more on the first page of the site in which are shown some options to download Fedora Desktop Live image either by Torrent or in a direct download method (HTTP). The idea was to promote only one single media that will hopefully fulfil all the user's need, so that is why the Desktop Live Media is the one proposed.

fp.o proposal

There is also a news and Spins column that I'm sure need a lot more work (and probably some RSS feeds to make the news more content rich).  Also the Get-Fedora section was changed to provide a more intuitive way for new users to download Fedora.



If you followed the last month discussions about get-fedora in the mailing list you will probably notice this proposal is fairly equal to the one proposed back then. The changes were made in the JavaScript and now no more fancy animations are there (i didnt like them that much). Also there is only options to the official Fedora installation media and all spins will be their own space (which will be spins.fedoraproject.org).

I know it still need some work specially to provide a more efficient-not-so-user-friendly way for all hackers/experts who just want a one click method to download any media they want (i have already seen people complaining about too many clicks to download the media eventhough its only 3 clicks which imho isnt that much)

Anyway, these are my proposals and as i said they need some work so i would like you people to give some feedback, propose new things, correct when you see fit, and cricise if thats the case so all the people involved with the Fedora Websites Team an I can work on this feature that may lead us to have a so much better website

Current working site is available at http://jprada.fedorapeople.org/out/en


(9 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Completely unacceptable
[info]kevin_kofler
2008-06-10 11:02 pm UTC (link)
IMHO, this is completely unacceptable. The KDE spin MUST be given equal treatment, you're sending people straight to the GNOME-only Live spin and hide KDE completely. If you absolutely have to put one spin in the front, please use the installer DVD, which at least contains KDE (though most new users can't get KDE installed straight from the DVD, you have to know what you're doing to get it). The live spins also cannot be used for upgrades, which is another reason why proposing the GNOME Desktop Live spin as the default is bad.

The original get-fedora page which gives the 3 options (DVD, GNOME Live, KDE Live) is much better (the only problem I have with it is that the GNOME Live option doesn't mention "GNOME" anywhere except by the easily-missed logo in the icon, IMHO it should say "GNOME Live" or "Desktop Live (GNOME-based)"), your "improvements" make it suck.

(Reply to this) (Thread)
Re: Completely unacceptable
[info]spevack
2008-06-11 10:31 am UTC (link)
I appreciate your frustration Kevin, but please keep in mind that this is a *first draft* done by a *volunteer* (like you) in his spare time in order to try to address a vague set of requirements and gripes.

Let's try to keep the suggestions slightly more positive than telling a volunteer that his first effort is making things suck.

To me, your level of outrage would be better placed if these changes were pushed live without an opportunity for community feedback.

The more we jump on contributors who post ideas, drafts, mockups (even incomplete ones) for public view, the less likely it is to get volunteers to release early, release often.

You could make all your points in a way that give the contributor something to work with for version 2, rather than wanting to make the contributor say "screw it" and walk.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Completely unacceptable
[info]mmcgrath
2008-06-11 06:48 pm UTC (link)
Actually this isn't websites call. IIRC releng decides what our "official" release is and as far as they're concerned, its Gnome. We have to steer the users somewhere. I'm a KDE user and I wish Fedora was KDE primary not Gnome primary but AFAIK, the powers that be have still decided it is not.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Completely unacceptable
[info]mmcgrath
2008-06-11 06:54 pm UTC (link)
I stand corrected, according to Jesse its the boards decision what our primary release is.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Re: Completely unacceptable
[info]kevin_kofler
2008-06-11 09:47 pm UTC (link)
But why put the live media (where you have to choose one desktop) as the default over the installer DVD (which has both, even though the desktop choice could/should be made more obvious, not hidden in the custom package selection which most new users skip)? There are also some other practical reasons to put forward the DVD rather than the live images: https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-websites-list/2008-June/msg00095.html

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
Re: Completely unacceptable
[info]mmcgrath
2008-06-11 09:57 pm UTC (link)
no idea, they're still working on it though. And have been for a long while. Its actually a very difficult problem to solve. juankprada is the latest of many people have worked on the get Fedora page, it's been through many iterations. We'll get there.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Re: Completely unacceptable
[info]juankprada
2008-06-11 06:01 pm UTC (link)
As i said it needs some work, its not by any means the final version.
Also please refer to https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-websites-list/2008-May/msg00094.html as those points mentioned there are the ones that will be taken into a count when making changes to current site, so that would explain the decision of making Destkop Live CD media the default. If you disagree with any of the points presented on that list feel free to reply to the mailing list and attend the next websites meeting so you can share you disagreement and/or proposals.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]thestalwart
2008-06-10 11:34 pm UTC (link)
Too much text. On current get-fedora you can distinguish gnome and kde media with just icons.

Also, linking only to 32bit (i guessed?) gnome live media is just pointless and confusing. It's not speed install hackfest, user can spend half a minute to read descriptions of dvd and live media (or notice kde logo and make choice right away ;) )

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]thestalwart
2008-06-10 11:48 pm UTC (link)
Few more:
- Website could detect arch from user-agent
- Bittorrent download description should link to transmission or utorrent (detect os from user-agent)
- Note in dvd description that all software can be dowloaded after live media installation using packagekit (maybe link to some package manual with screenshots?)

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(9 comments) - (Post a new comment)

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