Enable installation of distribution (install profile) at install time and provide curated list of available distros

Problem/Motivation

Despite amazing work and much supporting infrastructure, distributions remain a very small percentage of the overall Drupal install base. While many factors contribute to that situation, one is simply that it's very difficult to switch to a distro after having started with a regular Drupal install.

Related discussions and initiatives:

• What can Joomla learn from Drupal about distributions? (blog post, see comment on low distro install rates).
• Related ticket for Backdrop CMS.
• Current Typo3 project:
  

  Up until now the introduction and government packages had to be delivered as part of a whole TYPO3 installation as there was no easy way to provide out of the box installations without delivering the core with it. The new distribution management aims at making it possible to deliver and install full packages as normal extension via the extension manager. Therefor making maintenance of existing and creation of new packages much easier.

Although Drupal install profiles currently are packaged as separate distributions, there are few technical reasons that should require this. Short of patching Drupal core, the full code base of a "distro" should be limited to an install profile and its subdirectories, and so be perfectly compatible with installing as an add-on to a given version of Drupal core.

Proposed resolution

• Enable install profiles (distros) to be installed via enhancements to the extension install/update system. Some of these enhancements could draw on the Apps module.

Beyond this basic step, a further set of enhancements to consider:

• Implement a set of requirements and protocols and a selection process for a distro to qualify for listing in the core installer.
• Provide a mechanism for loading available curated distros compatible with a given version of core.
• Enhance the installer to load as install time options a curated set of distros. If a non-installed distro is selected, download, install, and then enable.

Remaining tasks

User interface changes

API changes

Related Issues