[arch-general] `base` group replaced by mandatory `base` package - manual intervention required

[Nero Claudius Drusus]

Let's face the facts. Man is superfluous for most people learning how to
install Arch, especially since it forces you to have an internet connection
in order to install.

The wiki installation page so far hasn't included any extras other than the
kernel (at least that I've noticed thus far, please correct me if I'm
wrong). If it creates a broken system then that's a legitimate point of
contention, otherwise it's just adding a couple more packages to your
install script which falls exactly inline with Arch's minimal philosophy.

On Thu, Oct 10, 2019, 7:26 PM Eli Schwartz via arch-general <
arch-general at archlinux.org> wrote:

> On 10/10/19 9:00 PM, Nero Claudius Drusus via arch-general wrote:
> > I've been following this discussion and can't see what the actual problem
> > is. I've installed a new system since the change and the installation
> doc's
> > have been updated appropriately. It still works. If you want extra
> packages
> > then add them, this, in my opinion, is what Arch is designed to do. I'm
> not
> > seeing why extra packages need to be installed based upon personal
> > preference.
> There's a community interest in something that helps you install
> high-profile packages such as:
>
> man-db
> man-pages
> less
> diffutils
> texinfo
> vi (required by the POSIX User Portability option, commonly assumed to
> be "the text editor you have even when you don't have anything else")
>
> It is also easy, once you have something for that, to also have it
> prompt you to install:
>
> linux (most people's default kernel)
> linux-firmware
>
> These are some pretty reasonable basic assumptions to make, so it's not
> crazy to think maybe users should be able to have some group of these
> packages to make sure they don't forget anything. It's especially not
> obvious that suddenly you need to install the `man` program as well as
> the core set of linux manpages (containing the 1p section and most of
> the good stuff in sections 2 & 3). But also texinfo, if you want to be
> able to read most documentation from GNU projects which don't ship
> proper manpages.
>
> At what point does updated wiki documentation become a giant list of
> "here's the things 99.9999% of people need but you'll have to install
> separately after reading some caveat and if you don't, then you will not
> even be able to type in 'man' to figure out your mistakes while offline"?
>
> --
> Eli Schwartz
> Bug Wrangler and Trusted User
>
>