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In case anyone hasn't gotten this.... |
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|
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-------- Original Message -------- |
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Subject: [linux-distros-dev] A bit of a reboot |
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Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:06:02 -0400 |
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From: Andrew Overholt <overholt@××××××.com> |
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To: linux-distros-dev <linux-distros-dev@×××××××.org> |
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Hi, |
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As you all know, our project hasn't really been a shining example of |
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output or participation. I'd like to change that. What follows are my |
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thoughts. I'd appreciate comments/criticisms/ideas/whatever. |
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Reasons for existence / Goals |
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============================= |
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We started the project after a few different distribution maintainers |
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found that they were complaining about the same things (builds being |
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difficult, lack of autotools support in CDT, package maintenance |
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difficulties, etc.). The goals at the time were two-fold: 1) be a |
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place for distributions to collaborate and 2) provide tools specific to |
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Linux developers and packagers. |
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Current status |
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============== |
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We have some Linux-specific tools that are doing well: the ChangeLog |
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plugin and the RPM specfile editor. Jeff Johnston has also told me that |
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he plans on contributing his autotools plugins. There's also some |
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renewed interest in the OProfile plugin which I'm hoping we'll see some |
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patches for soon. So we're not doing *too* badly on providing tools. |
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Unfortunately, little cross-distro collaboration has actually taken |
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place. I'd like to think this is because we all have lots to deal with |
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in real life and in our respective distros. What can do to improve |
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here? Since we all fight the same battles with builds and stuff, it |
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would be good to work together and not duplicate effort. |
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I think we need to do a few things: |
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1. Make an update site for the tools we have. |
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2. Have an actual release! Then we won't be the bad Eclipse project who |
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never really followed the processes :) |
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3. Re-focus on our goals. |
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To be honest, I think the tools half of our project is doing alright. |
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We just need to follow some processes a bit more. It's the distro |
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collaboration stuff that needs to be improved. I think the project that |
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Ben Konrath started -- eclipse-build -- is a good place for this. |
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Ideally we can get to the point where that project produces a buildable |
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source tarball that all distros can use. We can probably aim for the |
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Ganymede winter maintenance release. It will take care of the stuff we |
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all do on top of the releng srcIncluded drops. Also, we can share our |
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common methods of building non-SDK plugins. Scripts to run test suites |
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are also a good place to work together. |
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We need to have a plan in place soon so I'll be working on something |
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more formal than this email. I really welcome all feedback so please |
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let me know whatever you're thinking -- even if it's "you're stupid" ;) . |
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Andrew |
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