(Flavours Download) order flavours appearance alphabetically

[Pasi Lallinaho]

On http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu-flavours, the flavours seem to be ordered randomly.

Can we get these ordered alphabetically as this would likely make the most sense for the user? (Even if that puts us, Xubuntu, the last, again...)

[Pasi Lallinaho (knome)]

Would also like some feedback from other flavour teams - if they think some other order would be fairer. First release might be another sensible option, and I wouldn't object to that either.

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Speaking for Lubuntu (I don't necessarily represent everyone on the team), I would think a logical order would make sense. Alphabetical seems the easiest (though does push Xubuntu down below the fold). Maybe ordering by popularity? But we really have no way to judge that. So yeah, alphabetical.

[Peter Mahnke (peterm-ubuntu)]

Hi, we are happy to change this page. As I expect flavour to have a few changes, I have asked Michael Hall to help organise the work so we only have to update the page once.

Please keep filing bugs and hopefully we will get them all here and can update the page soon.

Peter - Canonical web team

[Flames_in_Paradise (ellisistfroh-deactivatedaccount)]

hi,

These are NINE items, not so hard to differentiate. The way it's ordered now, looks fine to me from the visual impression.

Why not make mockup's 1st and then take a look at this? Even "the pick" could be delegated to the community. What does the visual-design group think?

CSS would offer the ordering via "click-button".

Another option would be to put the specialized versions in the last row (Kylin, Mythbuntu, Studio) and keep the desktop versions on top of them.

[Pasi Lallinaho (knome)]

Not hard differentiate to whom? To someone who is familiar with the flavors, or somebody who has never heard of them?

There is nothing wrong in the visual implementation - I'm talking about the ordering of the items. I also don't think this requires a graphical mockup - the page will look OK with any order.

Indeed, the ordering of the items should be delegated to the community, which is what we are doing here. I'm even fine with keeping the current order, if somebody explained how it is so, but I haven't seen any rationale yet.

If you mean that the user should be able to select the sort order via a "click-button", I disagree; this page doesn't need any more complexity or randomness. What it needs is an order that is immediately clear for the user. This can be an alphabetical sort, or the DE/specialized grouping you propose (with subheadings likely).

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

I think the hope for this is to make flavors visible, so I'd expect the audience to be those unfamiliar with flavors.

I think alphabetical order (or some kind of order!) would make more sense than the apparent random order. Either way, both ordering systems do nothing to guide the user who doesn't know about flavors. This is an area where I could see improvement, such as the DE/specialized grouping. We do have the descriptions, and that's good. But what if they didn't have to read all the text?

I propose the following, using both orderings with the headings:

DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT OPTIONS
==================================

 * Lubuntu
 * Kubuntu
 * Ubuntu GNOME
 * Ubuntu MATE
 * Xubuntu

SPECIALIZED SYSTEMS
=======================

EDUCATION
---------------------
Edubuntu

LOCALIZATION
--------------------------
Ubuntu Kylin

MEDIA
-------------------------
Mythbuntu
Ubuntu Studio

The sub-headings may seem irrelevant, but who knows if we don't add more later. And besides, everything can be seen at a glance…

[Pasi Lallinaho (knome)]

If the descriptions for flavours are sensible (like they mostly seem to be), the subheadings should prove to be duplication anyway, so I would probably leave them out.

[Pasi Lallinaho (knome)]

Another thought that crossed my mind with this separation is that I don't know if even this DE/specialized separation can give the wrong association for some people. For example, Xubuntu isn't just Ubuntu with Xfce but a lot more; for this reason, I think I still prefer simply alphabetical ordering.

[ԜаӀtеr Ⅼарсһуnѕkі (wxl)]

Indeed, I was thinking about that, too. Lubuntu, for example, is entirely focused (including the apps) on being lightweight. So it's nothing like Ubuntu more often than not. I think we can continue to discuss these additional ideas as needed but having alphabetical ordering is a necessary requirement at this point.

[Peter Mahnke (peterm-ubuntu)]

we will update to alphabetical order for now.