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

From: zimoun <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2022 18:45:13 +0100

Hi,

On Tue, 06 Dec 2022 at 17:33, "pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)" <[email-masked]> wrote:

> Yes (’s patch was merely about discoverability of the latest installer
> page, that already exists.  Also the latest installer page has a warning
> that points users to the standard installer.  So we could push

For what it is worth, I think it is better to keep the front page with
only 2 buttons: “Download v1.x“ and “Contribute”.

For discoverability, what I propose instead is to redirect the users
from,

    https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/

If the user does not read the header or is not interested in, they can
process with the current released images.  Otherwise, as I propose, a
mention to the latest development, and hop to the other page,

    https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/latest/

> But then, shouldn’t we tell users there are bugs in the standard image and
> they better use latest?

By mentioning in the header of:

    https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/

For example, it reads,

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
As of version 1.3.0, the standalone Guix System can be installed on an
i686, x86_64, ARMv7, or AArch64 machine. It uses the Linux-Libre kernel
and the GNU Shepherd init system. Alternately, GNU Guix can be installed
as an additional package manager on top of an installed Linux-based
system.
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Therefore, we can add here one sentence or two for mentioning 1. the
latest download webpage and 2. the potential issue.

> Could we maybe wait until such reasons pop up for 1.4.0?  Or have a new
> standard installer independent of the Guix release?

As every program, bugs are around. ;-)  I mean, I do not see why we
should wait.

> Mathieu will know better, but I think there were few issues with 1.3.0
> (UUID checks in commit f5d9d6ec68f78f5651bd5a698f489ab57bf77d5d) but
> latest has better logging.  On the other hand, the latest installer had
> few new bugs except missing mkfs.ext4.

>From my opinion, the latest installer has less bugs than the v1.3 one. :-)

>> Therefore, I still propose on the webpage <https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/>
>> to add this sentence:
>>
>> These images are well-tested released images, and since Guix follows
>> rolling release model, the [latest development images are
>> here](https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/latest/).
>
> Why mention rolling release?

It is a proposal. :-) I do not know if it is the correct wording.  The
idea is to explain that the installer is continuously improved.  The
model is not stable (release) vs unstable (development) but instead
frozen (release) vs latest.  And mention (point) this latest webpage.

I think this proposal about mentioning the latest download webpage from
the current release webpage improves about discoverability.  And it
keeps the usual entry point with the current release – for sure, it is
well-tested and it should be the recommended way for installing.

Cheers,
simon