Debian User Forums

I wonder whether it would be worth creating a new category for the discussion of problems with virtual machines as it is not obvious which of the current categories is the best location for these problems. Also, it may be that these problems are rather specialist, not affecting other people. There may be a number of questions about gettting other OSs running, while having Debian as the main OS, but this would only make Debian look more attractive, especially if there are good answers

Geoff

What is wrong with Desktop & Multimedia?

Everything about X, Gnome, KDE, ... and everything running on it

Seems appropriate.

Randicus wrote:What is wrong with Desktop & Multimedia?

Everything about X, Gnome, KDE, ... and everything running on it

Seems appropriate.

I must admit that of the existing catagories, I had not considered this one at all as I had not thougth it appropriate. It is not clear to me that questions about getting host operating systems running under, say, Xen, have anything to do with X.

Geoff

I have had a very quick look at where questions are currently found on VMs and spotted topics on :-

Xen in :-
General Questions
System configuration
Installation
Hardware

and on KVM in :-
General Questions
System configuration
Hardware

Geoff

That is the unavoidable problem with dividing a board into too many categories. There will always be overlap. Where does system configuration end and general questions begin? Or desktop and multi-media and general questions? Then there is general questions and beginner questions (which overlaps every other category). The only thing we can do is choose the categories we think are most appropriate.

Randicus wrote:The only thing we can do is choose the categories we think are most appropriate.

It's actually worse than that. Research suggests that people don't agree on categorizations for simple, everyday things, let alone forum postings. So your larger point, that adding more categories actually hurts rather than helps is quite correct.

If only someone would invent a tool that would allow Web users to locate content by some kind of keyword, regardless of how it might be (mis?)categorized. I guess I imagine users being able to type in a query like virtual machines debian and get back a bunch of Web pages pertaining to the admittedly broad category of VMs and Debian. The tool I'm imagining would allow users to broaden or narrow their focus by removing/adding query terms.

It'd be a very cool thing if someone ever built a tool like that. I just bet it would catch on.

dasein wrote:It'd be a very cool thing if someone ever built a tool like that. I just bet it would catch on.

Doubtful. Such a thing would require complex knowledge to use. Many people would not have either the time or the desire to read the manual.

I suspect that you are correct on the general point about splitting stuff up. It is a bit more tricky here as searching for three letter words does not work simply.

Geoff

Geoff 42 wrote:...searching for three letter words does not work simply.

Then you're busily trying to solve the wrong problem. Learn how to do a site-specific search in your favorite search engine.

dasein wrote:

Geoff 42 wrote:...searching for three letter words does not work simply.

Then you're busily trying to solve the wrong problem. Learn how to do a site-specific search in your favorite search engine.

Or you can add an asterisk to your three letter word search, which does work, although it is not quite so specific.

Geoff