On Wednesday 08 March 2006 21:44, Robert Schiele wrote: Hi Robert,
I will add mls to cc to allow him to defend himself if he feels that this is needed. But notice this is not about him but about a general problem of the development model. He is just involved in one instance of the problem. Yes, there is nothing that mls is to blame for or something.
On Wed, Mar 08, 2006 at 08:00:01PM +0100, Sonja Krause-Harder wrote:
On Wed, Mar 08, 2006 at 07:23:01PM +0100, Robert Schiele wrote:
Actually I don't care whether it is a "shadow" svn or a "shadow" we-don't-use-revision-control-internally-at-all tool. Obviously software (like the build script) is already deployed to the build server in a version that is not in the public repository (because there is _no_ version of the build script in the repository but the server does actually build packages already).
This is the backend part I mentioned.
I know but still want to make the point there because this is exactly the place where one instance of the problem currently shows up.
No, I don't. We went public with a pre-pre-alpha, far from feature complete, incomplete version to give people the possibility to look at the code as early as possible. I understand your frustration that this is not going faster, but I can't change it now. We're working on the problem. Well, it is developing and the developing should really be open, I can fully understand Robert. But the good news here is: It is already partly. All the API and webclient are in external svn at http://forge.novell.com/modules/xfmod/svn/svnbrowse.php?repname=opensuse I know and agree that partly is not enough, but it is more than nothing.
The question is now: Do you want external developers in the openSUSE project or not? If you don't want them then you could just state that and I will see that I did completely misunderstand the intention of the openSUSE project up to now.
No, you understood it completely right.
But if you want to attract external developers a change in the development model should happen.
Yes, and we are really working on that. We are at Novell and Novell is on it's way to become the largest and coolest open source company out there. But: We are still on the way. At Novell (maybe same for SUSE and many other companies ;) you find people who have not _yet_ fully understood what benefits come out of a real open development model, especially for openSUSE. And switching a 'classic' software company to an open source company is a big task. So we have many discussions and explain and explain. That takes time. And during this time we as developers here at SUSE are not in the position to release code that might be subject of these discussions. I hope you understand that. BUT: Believe us that we are really doing everything to get the stuff really open! We as open source developers really want you to get into that. We personally do not want to be another "pseudo open" company and we do not want to have a "pseudo open source" project. And I understand your frustration completely. And I like to thank you that you take the time to write that down and do not go away silently.
Please don't do the same your colleagues did while developing Xgl. I am sure they are attracting now some developers from outside Novell because Xgl is a shiny thing but they could have more if they did develop it in an open way from the very beginning.
Yes. Thanks Robert, Klaas
-> webclient & api developer. -- Klaas Freitag Novell - SUSE R&D - Internal Tools