[Suggestion] Derivatives and Mixes apart of Off-Topic

[ruwolf]

I know, that FrankenDebian Monsters are strongly reprobated, but they can be very cute and useful.

(I used them for years with minor dependency issues only, e.g. Debian stable & testing or stable & old-stable mix, Debian+PureOS chimera or currently Debian+Ubuntu blend. Because they use the same package format with great dependency system, break of the system is quite precluded IMHO).

And most issues in them are absolutely unrelated to their chimerism, because affected packages are included in pure Debian (or pure derivative).

Maybe some Debian derivatives not have their own forum, either.

So I would like to see support for such systems. I.e. to see them out of Off-Topic section.

(I know, that Debian is not Ubuntu, but its forum has such sub-forum as supported. I do not want support for unrelated distributions,, e.g. with discrepant package formats here, of course.)

I think that with warnings about risks, such sub-forum could have been useful also for pure Debian system itself and its users.

[CwF]

I don't disagree about the usefulness of FrankenDebians. However, the creator is the maintainer - the one who provides support. This should be the realm of the expert. This expert should know enough to fully disclose the nature of their mix, and they often don't. They assume it doesn't matter, not always safe. It is unfair to assume the knowledge base here covers all varieties. Frankly, it maybe does. Still, out of courtesy posting in off-topic and properly disclosing the nature of the mix seems right, fair, and easy.

Perhaps we need a new tag in off-topic to mark these '[derivative]OP Title'. Would that be sufficient? Or a dedicated sub-forum right under 'Off-Topic', 'Derivatives'. Many subs would not be good, it's over-thinking it. A 'Derivative' tag for all forums is a medium solution but still busy. Off-Topic is only at 70k post, so it's got room.

[sunrat]

We have discussed that before, actually I think I suggested it. We decided that we didn't want to be a support forum for derivatives. Very few here actually use them so knowledge is lacking, and they are all different from Debian in some way.
Happy to have topics on derivatives posted in Off-Topic, and most will see some discussion and possible resolution.

@CwF Can't say I'm keen on a tag. It would take more admin oversight to make that even partially useful, and experience has proven that tags are often used incorrectly.
Definitely a no on a derivative subforum.

[CwF]

@CwF Can't say I'm keen on a tag. It would take more admin oversight to make that even partially useful, and experience has proven that tags are often used incorrectly.
Definitely a no on a derivative subforum.

As we were then. Agreed.

[ruwolf]

Maybe it could be explicitly unsupported, but still out of Off-Topic?

[wizard10000]

Maybe it could be explicitly unsupported, but still out of Off-Topic?

I vote no. Creating a frankendebian is certainly your hardware, your choice but I don't see a need to move them out of off-topic.

[CwF]

@ruwolf
I think we arrived at the answer. Off-Topic should handle it.
A simple summary may be that the existing sub-forums handle all things contained in main, now non-free-firmware, and some stretches into non-free.
Any foreign repository content of any kind, or outright aliens go in Off-Topic.

I can see foreign or alien containing post allowed in Programming perhaps when there is interaction with a pure Debian. Testing also may be appropriate when a capable user is pushing forward with patches or local complied ingredients, and subsequently tries an MX or other binary and it indeed works - so the question becomes how to solidify this mod. If that process doesn't work, then Off-Topic!