This brings many advantages, in PostNuke .8 you will know what you need to run your site, and what you can throw away. Additionally, you won't have to remove all the modules you don't want to use prior to installing PostNuke, as the main distribution will come empty, ready for you to expand. There will also be a greater sense of structure to the PostNuke distribution.
Having said that, there will also be disadvantages. The main PostNuke distribution will have nothing other than the basic framework to run a site. You won't have any of the old content modules, hook modules, or anything to allow you to simply download and use PostNuke. This is where the targeted distributions come in. On PostNuke.com, we will be distributing a set of targeted distributions aimed at different audiences. These targeted distributions won't necessarily contain just core modules, third party modules can also be included. How third party modules could be included and what quality control measures would be implemented is still under debate, as having code not directly maintained by the Core Development team in the official distributions brings its own problems.
So what sort of distributions could we see? Well, there's plenty of scope for distributions of all kinds. For example, some categories could be:
Of course, the targeting doesn't just stop at modules. We'd like to see a new set of themes in the core distribution, and these can also be targeted. In addition to a few core themes, each distribution could have several themes intended for the specific audience of the category of site chosen.
So, as necessary, each different distribution can include forums, content modules, a helpdesk, blogging utilities, the list is endless. And, thanks to this new approach to distributing PostNuke, users should find it easier to start off with PostNuke. Rather than downloading the core distribution now, seeing some content modules with some obvious gaps in functionality, much of what a user could need for a specfic type of site should already be available to them. Furthermore, the demo distribution can include a selection of modules that best give an idea of the huge functionality PostNuke provides, hopefully attracting more and more people to experience the power of a PostNuke website.
None of this is set in stone, but this article should give you a fair idea of what is to come and how the distributions will work in future. If there are any further questions on specific aspects of the PostNuke .8 release, please do raise them, and we will do our best to answer through comments or articles as appropriate.