This is following on from here, rather than continuing to clutter up
the bugtracker with back and forth

https://bugs.launchpad.net/leo-editor/+bug/896809?comments=all

For what it's worth, i.e. just my 2ยข:

The fact of the matter is that Leo is actually very easy to install
and very stable to run, but anyone who's used done any amount of
checking out FOSS projects knows that is often not the case. For
people hearing about Leo and wanting to check it out, the early stages
of the documentation and particularly the installation process itself
is a critical part of their first impression, particularly for non-
programmers (which I am) and non-technical people (which I'm not).

Currently that page puts bazaar right up front, and perhaps I'm braver
than most, but since I'd read the "should we end the practice of
issuing releases" thread beforehand, I jumped in, with the results as
per the bugtracker thread above, and testing still ongoing.

I would suggest that right up at the top of that page be a statement
somewhat along these lines:

----
The core Leo code is always being improved and developed, using a
rigorous unit-testing blah-blah that ensures that the daily commits
are as bug-free as possible. In fact (insert #% or qualifier) of the
time, downloading the most recent "nightly snapshot" of the
development code from our version control system Bazaar (link to here
http://www.greygreen.org/leo/) is going to give you code that is just
as stable and much more up-to-date than the most recent "release"
available here (link to http://sourceforge.net/projects/leo/files/OldFiles/),
which most Leonistas would at this point consider already outdated. If
you are just checking Leo out, feel free to use the latter release
download if it makes you feel more secure, but once you've decided to
work with Leo on a regular basis, we highly recommend regularly
keeping your installation up to date with the most recent snapshot.

----

Other notes:

Since for Linux and Windows the initial hurdle for many is getting the
prerequisites going, I would make that part OS-specific, but then have
the "within-Python" stuff marked platform-independent, leaving only
the more problematic Mac discussion as a completely separate section -
in fact I'd suggest putting a link to a completely separate page
somewhere near the top, to leave the main page with a more positive
overall tone.

Only after you've addressed the needs of "mere users" should there be
a section, or again a link to a separate page for programmers who may
be interested in helping to develop Leo, and make it clear that Bazaar
is the way to go for them (and currently only them), and only then add
a note about Bazaar's current problems with memory usage and any Leo-
specific suggestions and workarounds, again clearly targeted to that
particular audience.

Other relevant discussions:

http://groups.google.com/group/leo-editor/browse_thread/thread/fc83705d96ea6157
https://bugs.launchpad.net/leo-editor/+bug/242060/comments/4

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