Re: Debian subset suitable for m68k (was: Tuple and changes for m68k with -malign-int)

Hi John,

On 21.5.2025 4.59, John Klos wrote:
>> As I pointed out years ago, you need to stop wasting effort on packages
>> that aren't relevant anymore, due to bloat.
> 
> There's no real point being made here. Which packages aren't relevant 
> any more, due to bloat? Who decides?

Decision part is IMHO rather obvious, it should be both users and 
maintainers together.

It's good for maintainers to ask users for feedback on what matters on 
them, so that effort is not wasted on something that nobody uses.  And 
also to ask help if some task is larger, to see whether there's enough 
interest (= help available) to make that effort actually worthwhile. If 
not, what's the point of maintaining something nobody cares (enough)?

So next question is what are the best ways to reach users and get their 
feedback?

Package statistics, bug reports and just asking on the mailing list(s) 
are first things that come to my mind, but others may have other 
suggestions.

So to start, here are the things that are, and are not, relevant for me 
_on m68k_.  I.e. _personal_ opinions. First some general principles, and 
then few examples.


Relevant
--------

Base system, compilers, interpreters, misc tools, some graphics, and 
things shared between niche/retro communities (like m68k) in general.

In my case, for example:
- Kernel
- Busybox
- Gcc
- G++
- Lua
- Python
- La/TeX
- SDL1
- ScummVM
- Wired networking
- w3m, links, lynx etc
- Small niche windowing systems
- Slimmed-down Debian essentials


Not relevant
------------

Modern corporate backed software, and anything needing encryption or 
GPUs supporting GLES2+, I get enough of those on x86 Linux. They are too 
slow / large for m68k platform, and frankly boring, all something I try 
to avoid in my hobbies. :-)

For example:
- Java & C#
- LibreOffice
- Chrome/ium, Firefox, Webkit
- Modern desktop environments (KDE, Gnome...)
- libSDL v2 & v3, and things depending on them
- Wireless & VPN support
- Virtualization


Potentially relevant
--------------------

Some of the new tech, especially when it relates to smaller setups and 
base system, and more lightweight GUI apps, might also be of interest at 
some point:
- Wayland / Weston
- Golang
- Rust, Zig
- Abiword, Gnumeric, Evince (non-Gnome versions)
- LyX (LaTeX GUI)


Any thoughts on the above principles?


	- Eero