Posted by Kristen Pol on April 22, 2010 at 6:25pm
Dries said in his DrupalCon SF keynote there were 19 (I think) distributions available. If I go to:
I see a few listed. Where are the rest? Will drupal.org be the go-to place for all distributions or will it be distributed across the web like the feature servers?
Kristen
Comments
Can add two. Managing
Can add two.
Managing News
http://managingnews.com/
and
OpenPublish
http://openpublishapp.com/
15
I believe the number was 15, but it does look like many are missing from the distributions page. I was very eager to see what they all are myself, as I only know of about half that many.
http://arborwebdevelopment.com
drupaldistrowatch.com
Some of the distros are listed here: http://drupaldistrowatch.com/
Alas, it just lists them by
Alas, it just lists them by name, without a one-sentence description of each. That's a lot of clicking.
Chas Belov
off the clock
Distrubutions / Install Profiles
The "install profiles" category on Drupal.org is where to look: http://drupal.org/project/installation+profiles
Some are "old school" install profiles, as packaging roles out and profiles are updated, then people will be able to download entire distros with core + included modules.
Installation profile vs. distribution
This definitely comes under the category of improving the newbie experience. I've been to the installation profiles page already and it's not a very friendly way to present the information. Also, it doesn't appear to answer the original question. As of the time of this post, we find:
"Installation profiles are a feature in Drupal core that was added in the 5.x series. The Drupal installer allows you to specify an installation profile which defines which modules should be enabled, and can customize the new installation after they have been installed. This will allow customized "distributions"</http://drupal.org/project/installation+profiles> that enable and configure a set of modules that work together for a specific kind of site (Drupal for bloggers, Drupal for musicians, Drupal for developers, and so on)."
That paragraph itself implies that "installation profiles" and "distributions" are two different things. If I click the distributions link in that paragraph, there we find:
Information on quick pre-configured Drupal installations, usually including a selection of modules.
"At drupal.org:
goes back to the page you recommended.
" Distribution profiles - Drupal group." goes to the Drupal group that contains this very discussion. Not helpful.
"Other resources:" has links which do not necessarily go to a page describing the specific distribution. I'll be happy to file an issue sometime this weekend.
"Lists that might also facilitate an initial module selection:" helpful, but not "the list"
So...
I would expect to find a page http://drupal.org/project/distributions which lists each of the 19 distributions, links to the main page describing that distribution and providing a download link or a link to a download page, together with a brief description of each. But I don't find such a page.
Chas Belov
off the clock
Hey Chas; I cannot speak to
Hey Chas;
I cannot speak to #2, but as far as #1 is concerned, this is the prirmary difference:
An installation profile is a set of installation tasks and module enable settings that sets Drupal up a certain way. If you download and install Drupal from this site, it runs the 'default' installation profile. This enables a few core modules and sets the site up in English.
The installation profiles on this site will do various other things--such as enable other modules, like views, or cck, or even set up the site to run a different language. However, these profiles require you to download the main Drupal install, the modules that the installation profile requires, and the installation profile itself all seperately. You put them all where their respective readme's instruct you to place them and then run the install script--which will then ask you if you want to install the default profile, or the one you have downloaded and added to your setup.
A distrobution comes with all these things pre-installed, and even runs it's custom install profile without asking which way you want to install Drupal
So here's the answer in a nutshell
Installation Profile = Customized install script that requires you to download the script, required modules, and drupal seperately.
Distrobution = Same as above, but all bundled together.
For obvious reasons, distrobutions are better for newbies as forcing a new Drupal user to hunt around the site for miscellaneous modules and install them and the installation script in a default Drupal install is rough to say the least.
Hope that helps a bit.
Where?
Here.
Maybe Dries was refering to the active distos as there is over 80 distros on that page.
Distro's and Installation
Distro's and Installation Profiles are not the same thing. Distro's use installation profiles, but they are more than that.
Distro vs Installation Profile
My understanding of distribution vs. installation profile is that the former contains the Drupal core code and the modules bundled with it so that you download it and then you have everything you need while the latter will set up a new site based on listed modules that you have to download yourself.
I imagine there is more to it than that though...
[update] oops... I see that soyarma already had a nice breakdown of the difference above at:
http://groups.drupal.org/node/63653#comment-190738
;)Kristen
Contact: https://www.hook42.com/contact
Drupal 7 Multilingual Sites: http://www.kristen.org/book
Issue filed
I've filed a Drupal.org webmasters issue on this topic. Please review and add any improvements/suggestions.
Chas Belov
off the clock
Drupal.org can now build distributions automatically
This has been explained above. Why must Drupal.org be so confusing? Well, it used to be that you could only put installation profiles there -- just the little .profile file, and have to download everything else separately.
Now (as in, just in the past weeks / months), there are scripts automating the bundling of all the modules + core needed by an install profile. When it's pre-bundled like that, it's called a distribution, because you only have to distribute one thing.
Please pitch in and help edit the page(s) regardless.
I answered in the issue
http://drupal.org/node/787312#comment-2967200
I hope that helps clarify.
Cheers,
-Derek