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Okay, I'm jumping in here with a not-fully-considered-opinion, but how about...
There's a single download, all in one package that new users can grab. In that download is the latest core distribution, and also a module package. The module package is not part of the core, it is not in the distribution, this is just a way of distributing the modules and core together, without them actually being integrated. The idea is you might have a .zip file that contains two zip files, ie:
XOOPS-getting-starting-download.zip
|__xoops_core_latest_version.zip
|__xoops_basic_module_pack.zip
And then you also have the latest version of the core available for download on its own.
And you have whatever module packs available as well.
Seems to me the big issue here is not whether modules and the core should be available together. Everyone agrees that you need modules to make the core do anything! The issue is how to make it easy for newcommers to get going. If there was a big button on the download page that said "New to XOOPS? Click here to get everything you need to get started!" then people would zero in on that, and if it's a package that contains two other packages plus a readme, then that's cool isn't it?
Once people have a working system and they just want to update, or start a new XOOPS site, they'll come back and download the plain vanilla "core-only" download.
And the module packs would be similarly labelled.
What do you think?
--Julian