Debian Subproject HOWTO
Chapter 4 - Project structure

4.1 Subsetting Debian

While there are a variety of different kinds of work to be done in Debian, and not all of them follow this pattern, this document describes one particular kind of project. Our discussion concerns subsetting Debian. A subsetting project aims to identify, expand, integrate, enhance, and maintain a collection of packages suitable for a particular purpose by a particular kind of user.

Now, strictly speaking, a subset of packages could be more general than described above. A subset could be a broad category like "audio applications" or "network applications". Or it could be more specific, such as "web browsers" or "text editors". But what a subsetting project such as Debian Jr. aims to do is not focus on the kind of package, but rather the kind of user. In the case of Debian Jr. it is young children.

The sort of user the project looks after, and which of the needs the project hopes to address are, defined by the projects goals. Thus, Debian Jr. first had to decide which children: What age? English speaking children only, or other languages as well? And then the project had to determine how and where they would be using Debian: At home? In school? Playing games? On their own systems? On their parents' systems?

The answers to all of these questions are not straightforward. It is very much up to the project to choose some arbitrary limits for the scope of their work. Choose too broad a focus, or one which duplicates work already done elsewhere, and the energy of the project dissipates, making the project ineffective. Choose too narrow a focus and the project ends up being marginal, lacking the critical mass necessary to sustain itself.

Of course, it sometimes turns out that you start working on a project, thinking you know what it is about, only to find out later that you really had no idea what it would become until the user base has grown beyond the small community of developers that started it. So none of the decisions you make about your project's scope at the beginning should be taken as set in stone. On the other hand, it is your project, and if you see it veering off in directions that are contrary to your vision for it, by all means steer it back on course.

4.2 Using tasksel and meta packages

4.3 Deciding what to include

Debian Subproject HOWTO