Hi everyone,

we have mostly focused this week's meeting on how the ALP Desktop is
going to look like and how we can dispel fears around flatpaks and
containers when it comes to the ALP desktop.

tl;dr; Fear not, you will not be forced to download random flatpaks or
containers from dockerhub/flathub. We (probably) just change the deliver
method, but the packaging workflow will stay the same.

long version:

Desktop in ALP (topic for next official ALP update at news-o-o)

How can we dispell fears of users that we will shove containers & flatpacks down their throats:
    - we will use flatpak/containers as a distribution format, the packaging model will not change, only the format
    - the fear is not necessarily flatpaks (probably), but the fear that you'll have to pull everything from flathub/docker hub

=> stress out that you won't have to pull $randomStuff from the internet, you'll get audited software as you were before

Questions that lkocman would ask Yi Fan on the meeting would be:

* Some users are concerned that everything on their desktop will run in a container. Can you address these fears?
- flatpak/containers just a distribution mechanism, packaging not going to change
- ALP is still in flux, nothing set in stone
- aim: provide a good desktop for a ALP but don't duplicate work for maintainers (they don't want to ship rpms & containers/flatpak)
- possible solution for display manager & lower level things: https://github.com/fcrozat/gdm-container
- will allow seamless updates with flatpaks installed on the host

* Desktop not being part of PoC, but can we "tentatively" expect it in
any snapshot after (Dec, May)?
- gdm container makes good progress
- good progress with Wayland issues like remote desktop (also upstream involvement)
- maybe even have rough prototype in the PoC, will have more info this or next week

* I'd really love to see desktop image that you simply dump to disk
e.g. with self-install and first-boot wizzard that lets user to
configure system. What's YiFan opinion about this? (SUSE IT wants this
approach).
- no concrete plans here yet
- PoC will not have an installer, just a disk image will be the deliverable
-> need to figure out how to run an installer or what to use here
- Ancor is driving a workgroup to look into the traditional installation -> https://en.opensuse.org/index.php?title=openSUSE:ALP/Workgroups/Installation

* Any tips, best practices for how to start with Desktop app
development (Including things like Desktop Managers like XFce,
Elightenment etc) in "openSUSE ALP" (Current reference for community
part of ALP based distro, based on top of "base install image of ALP").
- for info, message Yifan directly (yfjiang@suse.com) or the ALP matrix room https://matrix.to/#/#alp:opensuse.org
- currently focusing on upstream contributions (-> GNOME upstream)
- downstream contributions go into Tumbleweed
- for container specific stuff, maybe later, currently too much in flux
- look into building flatpaks on OBS, this will become important very soon, so get started beforehands -> help OBS handling flatpaks & container images

* Preferred way to distribute apps we know there will be ALP flathub
repo in OBS, I think we could have something like "Community version of
it". But we should be really smart about this, as the same app could
work on top of (Community) ALP as well as Tumblweed.
- would be possible to create

* How many desktop environments will there be for ALP? Just GNOME like with SLED?
- first focus on GNOME, might consider alternatives afterwards
- will learn from going with GNOME first and apply this to others later on

Maybe publish the Desktop WG results to the openSUSE Wiki as well


And that's it for this week, see you again next week with Luboš back in
the driver seat!


Cheers,

Dan

--
Dan Čermák <dcermak@suse.com>
Software Engineer Development tools
SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH
Frankenstrasse 146
90461 Nürnberg
Germany

(HRB 36809, AG Nürnberg)
Managing Director/Geschäftsführer: Ivo Totev, Andrew Myers, Andrew McDonald, Boudien Moerman