Bug#819664: Re-organise the CD / download pages to make them more useful

Steve McIntyre <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.linux.debian.devel.www
Message-ID <20160331170948.GC19254__20705.4068254822$1459444554$gmane$org@einval.com>
Package: www.debian.org
Severity: important

As pointed out in

  https://lists.debian.org/msgid-search/[email protected]

, we may be giving links to download ISO images but we're not giving
*any* useful information about the checksums and signatures for those
images in pages like

  https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/debian-installer/

As we're trying to educate users to verify their downloads more, we
really need to do better here. For many (most?) people that page is
already a wall of text, so just adding more stuff there won't help.

>From other discussions with users in debian-user and elsewhere, I
think we actually have *too many* pages describing how to download
ISOs etc., and it's becoming a pain to keep up with them all and keep
them all updated in sync. It's very easy for people to find
outdated/misleading/confusing pages that put them off.

So, I'd like to suggest a new, much simplified strategy:

 * *Remove* the direct link on the front page to the multi-arch
   netinst I'd argue that we *don't* need a direct link on the front
   page, and it's a dis-service to users who may download it and then
   not know what to do to verify etc.

 * Replace that link with a link to a simple "Download" page which
   gives *simple* instructions and links. This would be similar to
   what we have at https://www.debian.org/distrib/ , but we also need
   to re-org that page and make it prettier and clearer, add some
   graphics etc.:

    Download Debian
    ===============

    Debian is [ ... ]

    	 GRAPHIC 1    	      		    GRAPHIC 2
	 (picture of installer)		    (picture of desktop)
      * Download installer		* Download live image
        ==================             	  ===================
	+ (link to m-a netinst?)	  + link to favoured 64-bit image
      	+ link to 64-bit netinst	  + link to favoured 32-bit image
 	+ link to 32-bit netinst
	+ more... (link to page with     + more... (link to page with
	  more architecture options,	   more architecture options,
	  download options, etc.)          download options, etc.)

                                  (CENTERED, in a box?)
 	      	       GRAPHIC 3
	               (picture of checksums / padlock etc.)
                      * Verify your download
                        ====================
                        (simple rationale and instructions,
                         link to page with more details)

        GRAPHIC 4                         GRAPHIC 5
	(picture of USB stick)		  (picture of CD/DVD media)
      * How to write to USB             * How to write to optical media
        ===================               =============================
        (simple instructions,		  (simple instructions,
         link to pages with more	   link to pages with more
	 details)      	    		   details)

 * Re-organise all the other pages to act as the subsidiary pages
   mentioned here, removing the redundancy that's biting us and
   hurting users.

Thoughts?
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