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Hi, |
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|
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I'm involved both in Debian and Ubuntu development, and I'm often |
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frustrated by how little I know about the other distributions. After |
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discussing this in a blog post[1], I got the impression that I wasn't |
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alone in that case. |
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|
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So I decided to do something about that, and to go ask the other |
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distributions' developers a few questions. If this works well (answers and |
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interest from other distros), I might do that again, or turn this into |
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something more formal (for example, a mailing list and/or a wiki would |
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seem well suited for that). |
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|
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I started by contacting openSUSE and Fedora developers developers, and got |
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very interesting answers. I'll publish the answers on my blog[2], and, if |
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this proves to raise interest, move them to a wiki. |
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|
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[1] http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/?p=250 |
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[2] http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/blog/ |
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|
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Here is a first set of questions. In your answers, please avoid codenames |
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(act as if the reader didn't know anything about your distribution). |
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Please try to write your answer as a short paragraph, answering all the |
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sub-questions from the questions at once. |
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|
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Q1. Packages |
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How many "pieces of software" do you have in your distribution? Do you |
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distinguish between "source packages" and "binary packages"? (if yes, |
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give numbers for both). Are there subdivisions in the set of packages (by |
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kind of support, by "freeness")? Are all packages supported the same way, |
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or are there different levels of support? (If different levels, how many |
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packages are supported with each level?) Are some packages imported from |
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another distribution, or are most of your packages done from scratch by |
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your developers ? |
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|
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Q2. Your developers |
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What's a "developer" in your distribution? How many developers do you |
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have? How many of these developers were active in 2007? Does a company |
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(which one?) employ a large number of developers? Do you have different |
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"classes" of developers, or does everybody have the same access right to |
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all your packages? How do you integrate new developers? How do you |
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handle contributors who don't have access rights to the archive? (is |
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there some kind of mentoring/sponsoring system?) |
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|
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Q3. Developers and packages ownership |
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What's the relationship between developers and packages? Does each |
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package have an assigned developer, or can everybody modify all packages |
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without stepping on anyone's toes? Are packages mostly maintained by |
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teams, or by developers working alone? |
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|
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Other questions: |
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- Did I send that mail to the right mailing list? |
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- Which question should I have asked? What should I ask next? |
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- Do you think that this initiative is interesting? |
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- Do you think that this should move to a seperate mailing list? Would |
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you participate in such a mailing list? |
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- Can you suggest a project that could host such a mailing list without |
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annoying anyone? :) |
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- Any other suggestions? |
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|
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Thank you for reading me so far -- and for answering my questions if you |
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did. ;) If you want me to ping you when I'll publish the answers, just |
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drop me a mail. |
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-- |
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| Lucas Nussbaum |
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| lucas@××××××××××××××.net http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/ | |
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| jabber: lucas@××××××××.fr GPG: 1024D/023B3F4F | |
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-- |
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gentoo-project@g.o mailing list |