comments on the "start here" post (FAO nexy)

[plugwash]

I'm putting this in a seperate thread to avoid dirtying a potential sticky too much with a load of discussion on what to put in it.

What is Raspbian?

The short answer is "It's an unofficial version (‘port’) of the upcoming ‘wheezy’ Debian Linux that is optimised for the Raspberry Pi."

Correct

Raspbery Pi Foundation's Debian port is based on the Debian “squeeze” distribution's "armel" port. It doesn't take advantage of some of the features of Raspberry Pi's processor. The new Debian “wheezy” distribution's "armhf" port requires features that the Raspberry Pi's processor doesn't have. Raspbian uses the features the Raspberry Pi does have, but doesn't use the features that are missing.

While nothing in here is technically incorrect I think the mentioning of particular versions of debian is somewhat misleading. Especially given that the foundation are working on a wheezy armel port (it's labeled as beta but afaict it's in considerablly better shape than their squeeze image).

Technical differences between Raspian and the Raspbery Pi Foundation's Debian port mean some programs will experience a very noticeable performance improvement on Raspian. A bigger and better explanation, along with a more technical details for those who want them, can be found on the Raspbian FAQ page.

You might want to actually mention floating point in this paragraph.

Who is Raspbian for?

Right now, it's for people with Linux experience with small ARM based systems such as the Raspberry Pi. The goal is for it to become the choice for all Linux users on the Raspberry Pi, but there are still a few rough edges to be smoothed out.

Most of the rough edges aren't really raspbian issues per-se. Yeah the experiance with the raspbian hexxeh or pisces images is a little rougher than with the foundations wheezy image but not significantly so and hopefully that will go away when friggle/asb gets a chance to prepare a foundation raspbian image.

What is this sub-forum for?

This forum is for Raspbian specific discussion.

What isn't this sub-forum for?

It's not for general Linux help or general Debian questions. You'd be better posting them in Using the Raspberry Pi or Debian.

I'm not convinced this is a good idea. I'd personally rather begginers having a problem with thier raspbian system come here first where we can triage the issue and decide whether it's our problem and if not where it is best to point them. I don't want to lose goodwill with debian by having newbies with raspbian specific problems bitching about them in more general debian places.

What's already in here?

Debian Hard Float (armhf) for RPi - Large thread chronicling mpthompson's amazing work with plugwash and others to bring Raspian to life.

Port of MATE to Raspbian. - MATE is a fork of the Gnome 2 desktop environment.

Donations for Raspbian - The project has cost about $3000 to Mike "mpthompson" Thompson personally already. Understandably donations would be gratefully received to help further development.
[/quote]
looks fine to me.

Where else should I look for Raspian information?

The first place to look is the official Raspian homepage.

For more history, there's mpthompson (Mike Thompson)'s posts on the Debian arm mailing list.

And mpthompson's original forum thread about what would later become Raspian.

fine

Where can I get it to try?

After you've read the Raspbian FAQ page, head to the Images page and select from one of the images available. Pisces is a good place to start!

fine.

Finally i'm not really sure i'm happy about having a sticky that we don't have control over.

I agree Plugwash,

The trouble is (and I could be wrong) that you can't go back and edit the posts in his forum either, so how do you change errors? I would much prefer a sticky like this to be made by yourself or Mike. I think the sticky would better serve as being a reflection of the FAQ on the http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianFAQ website.

Regards,

John

[mpthompson]

Probably the best thing would be a sticky "Start Here" posting in this forum, but the posting would just contain a link to a "Start Here" page in the Wiki. That way it can be edited as needed by anyone enabled to edit the Wiki. If others are OK with this, I went ahead and created a blank Start Here page at the following URL:

http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianStartHere

I appreciate the initiative by Nexy to create a Start Here page (great idea), so I hope he transfers the contents of his Start Here forum page to the Wiki, leaves a brief explanation and link in the forum page to the wiki page and edits his content in the Wiki.

Nexy, if you don't yet have editing privileges in the Wiki, please register and then send me the name you registered with and I'll take care of adding you as an editor.

Hopefully this will satisfy everyone.

EDIT: I'd already made quite a few changes before I reached this thread. I've taken on board plugwash's comments but if someone could take a look at the wiki page now and either let me know what they'd like changed, or change it themselves, that'd be awesome. I mainly created the start here thread because there wasn't one and it seemed like something I could do to help; it'd be one less thing that you guys would have to do. If someone else (like mpthompson or plugwash) wants to create a new thread with a link to the wiki and have ukscone to sticky that instead, that may be better?

On a slightly related note, I created http://www.reddit.com/r/raspbian primarily to stop someone else getting it and filling it with spam or whatever. If anyone is a redditor and would care to become a moderator (or plugwash or mpthompson would like to take admin from me) modmail me on reddit and I'll make the appropriate changes.

ORIGINALLY: I'd already started moving it over to the Wiki before I saw this thread. My progress is here: http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianStartHere

I'll start working on the changes plugwash has suggested immediately. Once everyone's happy with it, I'll request ukscone to unlock the thread and replace it with a pointer to the wiki.

[mpthompson]

Nexy, thanks for taking this on. It is indeed one less thing for us to do which is appreciated.

If you create a StartHere wiki page with the same content, couldn't you just edit your Start Here posting in this forum to link to it?

I'm just suggesting the Wiki page thinking it's a hassle to unlock, update, lock the posting in this forum every time you want to update something. The Wiki is much more suitable for "living documents" such as a "Start Here" page would probably be. If you like, keeping your content here in the forums is fine, but it will be a pain to edit (which may mean it's not edited much as it probably should be).

Just a simple:

Please visit the official "Start Here" page on the Raspbian wiki.

?

I don't know if it's my super Mod powers, or if the "edit by" date isn't here yet, but I'm still able to edit Nexy's sticky right now.

If Nexy can tell me what edits to make, I'll gladly make them, and keep making them if you have more in the future, just PM me with the changes. I think having a reasonably up to date Start Here post on the forum is a good thing, though quickly pointing to a wiki for more info sounds reasonable. Please validate the edits with The Team beforehand though, to avoid issues and de-doing/re-doing edits.

Thanks a lot for your contribution !

Thanks I think it must be your mod superpowers, as I can't edit it. Would you be able to change the text to a simple link please:

Please visit the official "Start Here" page on the Raspbian wiki.

url= http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianStartHere

Thanks!

[ukscone]

Thanks I think it must be your mod superpowers, as I can't edit it. Would you be able to change the text to a simple link please:

Please visit the official "Start Here" page on the Raspbian wiki.

url= http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianStartHere

Thanks!

added to the end of the post. is that correct?

I've pm'd ukscone to request the whole thing just be replaced with a link.

[plugwash]

Please don't, now that mpthompson and I have mod powers we can manage stickies in here appropriately.