On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 12:50 PM Stephen Gallagher <sgall...@redhat.com> wrote:
> On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 12:29 PM Josh Boyer <jwbo...@fedoraproject.org> wrote: >> On Tue, May 15, 2018 at 12:21 PM Jan Kurik <jku...@redhat.com> wrote: >> > = Proposed System Wide Change: Let's Label Our Variants! = >> > https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Label_Our_Variants >> > Owner(s): >> > * Matthew Miller <mattdm fedoraproject org> >> > * Mohan Boddu <mohanboddu fedoraproject org> >> > Start using the VARIANT and VARIANT_ID fields in /etc/os-release for >> > Spins, Labs and the base container image rather than just the main >> > Fedora Editions. >> > == Detailed description == >> > Right now, we use the VARIANT field (and machine-readable VARIANT_ID) >> > in /etc/os-release) only for the main Fedora Editions (and Fedora >> > Cloud Base, because of its history as an edition previously). This >> > means we can't tell the difference between a KDE desktop spin, a >> > container image, or just a generic netinstall constructed into a >> > custom system unlike any of our various flavors. Let's start using it >> > widely. >> Variant definitions seem like they're really only valid for things like >> install media and container images. They express intent well enough for >> what the spin or Edition is for, but after installation the package set >> deviates widely. We can't assume something that has the Server variant in >> /etc/os-release is actually representative of anything Fedora ships as >> Server without doing a package comparison along the way. If we're using >> variant to count anything, I think we need to scope it only to "initial >> installations". > The fedora-release-$VARIANT subpackage also provides a set of Requires: that indicates a minimum set of packages that must be on the system for it to still call itself "Server Edition". (For example, if you tried to remove the 'cockpit-ws' package, it would result in fedora-release-server being removed and /etc/os-release going back to the non-edition content) > So we *can* rely on this indicating a minimum level of functionality on the system. I have nothing against using variants or applying them to describe minimum functionality. Minimum function is good and we should retain that. That's different from counting "we have 87 Fedora Server installs!" based on variant though. I'm simply suggesting that in our statistics gathering, we take any measurement there with a grain of salt. With a mutable package set post-installation, there are any number of combinations that can falsely provide what the machine is. For example, it is trivial to install Server and then add KDE to it. Now you have something identified as Server that is really more of a Workstation (and a KDE one at that), simply because the user chose to use the Server iso to start with. Variant is an artifact creation-time suggestion, not a description of a system or it's actual usage post-install. josh _______________________________________________ devel mailing list -- devel@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to devel-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org
