If nothing else is stated, Plone refers to Plone-the-Product, i.e. all the included bits in the installers/packages.

Definitions

Plone Base

Just the CMFPlone dir/tarball (only for internal use in the installers etc since it doesn't do anything withtout the dependencies)

Plone Core

The minimal set of dependencies required to run, including the correct CMF version shipping with Plone as the 2.0 tarball demonstrates.

Plone (aka. Plone the Product)

What ships with the installers and packages.

The *ix people are free to create plone-core packages if they see that as useful, but the main package should:

• Be called Plone (not CMFPlone or anything else)
• Ship with everything that is defined as PtP, so users get a good out-of-the-box experience even on Linux. Example: If I do apt-get install plone on my debian box, I expect to get:
  • Zope installed (if not already installed)
  • CMF (from the Plone Core package, this is the only way we can guarantee that people are using the correct CMF version corresponding to their Plone version)
  • All the Products that ship with the installers

If you want to have a minimal install, create an additional install called plone-core, which can ship without the add-on products.