> From: Kevin Fenzi <kevin@scrye.com>
> To: devel@lists.fedoraproject.org
> Date: 05/13/2013 13:51
> Subject: Re: [Fedora-spins] Where are the remaining F19 spins?
> Sent by: devel-bounces@lists.fedoraproject.org
>
> On Mon, 13 May 2013 13:24:26 -0400
> John.Florian@dart.biz wrote:
>
> > > From: Dennis Gilmore <dennis@ausil.us>
> > > Perhaps the question we really need to ask is how should we deploy
> > > and install Fedora, Which is not something we can change or solve
> > > for f19 or probably even f20.  An idea that comes to mind is to
> > > have package selections and post install config tasks ship as
> > > kickstart snippets with the DVD.  we then use grub/syslinux to
> > > present a menu to the users to have different frameworks that
> > > resemble the spins the kickstart is fed to anaconda then at boot
> > > time or anaconda gives you the option to select them.
> >
> > I think the Fedora Formulas that Kevin proposed are the ideal
> > replacement for spins.
> >
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_formulas
>
> Sadly, I don't think so.
>
> They are cool and useful and worth persuing (If I can find some time
> to), but I don't think they can completely replace spins.
>
> Some uses of spins that don't map well to formulas:
>
> * Security lab spin being used to examine compromised images. You want
>   your thing to be a read only medium.
>
> * Desktops browsing. You may well want to boot the LXDE spin and play
>   around with it and decide it's not for you and move on without
>   installing anything. Of course you could install, test and remove,
>   but some people prefer to decide up front.
>
> * Base thing to run formulas on. You need some desktop/install/media
>   whatever to run the formulas on, so you always need some way to do
>   that initial install.
>
> * Taking a live image and booting 20 lab machines so you can run a
>   class, then shut down and no changes were made to the machines.
>
> (There's probibly others).
>
> kevin


Those are good counter-examples, especially the first.  The others though leave me less convinced given what I've been doing here for the last few years which is to take a customized Fedora Live spin with stateless Linux features enabled, plus puppet (considering switching to ansible), plus a little glue to make custom appliances where networked resources dictate the various roles those appliances play ranging from kiosks to firewalls.


--
John Florian