Hi, On Wednesday, December 04, 2013 07:50:30 AM Simon wrote:
On 12/04/2013 03:46 AM, Agustin Benito Bethencourt wrote:
Hi,
Is susestudio within scope for these discussions?
Greg
I certainly wouldn't argue against the fact that there is a large number of people who want to make there own Linux Distro. For people who need to set up a larger number of computers. What i was questioning was the need for derivative distro's that end up with there own artwork/web/support team that really just provide distrox with window manager y and a few other minor changes. All that does is splits community resources for little gain.
To summarize mostly i'm concerned about splits and extra effort that could be required if creating derivative's is not managed well. In my opinion a spin off of openSUSE thats marked as openSUSE for education which provides openSUSE with different packages to the main DVD are probably beneficial, creating a "servLinux" which is basicly openSUSE aimed at the server market is probably not ok.
Simon
derivatives/spinoffs/personalized distros (Studio)..... all these efforts are oriented on targeting use cases which are not targeted by the root project. There is nothing wrong with that in my opinion. Obviously it can be done in a way that feed the project or subtract energy from it. Those are "implementation details".
Agreed
derivatives/spinoffs/personalized distros (Studio) are options that today are somehow based on the fact that we ship a distro with "everything" (or a lot). Then you reduce the number of pieces and/or substitute some... to adapt it to your needs.
This is one of the things i liked most about openSUSE when i first started using it.
Our lack of derivatives can be a consequence of our current model.
when i read lack of derivatives in this sort of context i think mint, kubuntu etc. as derivatives. I think one of the strengths of our current model has also been the fact that we have stayed as one community rather then having groups of people feel they have been excluded and going off and doing there own thing. This is why i don't like the term derivative.
I would not consider Mint a derivative any longer. If most of you consider it, then the wording I chose is wrong. Kubuntu is in the process of not being a derivative either, although is way more connected to Canonical. I was thinking more about some of what you can get in Studio based on openSUSE or our Edu distro. I agree with you that these cases are examples of the failure of a project to integrate other sensibilities. It is never easy though.
If we add more focus to the project, if we create a very user centric release, the current model in this regard will need to adapt too.
The natural consequence of the proposed model, at least at the beginning, is that this release will be smaller, since users need less tools/software in general than developers or power users. Increasing the quality also will lead us to focus the current resources in less software. To cover more....we will need more people.
So for derivatives/spinoffs/personalized distros you will add software.
We do not have a clear idea yet on this area since we have not defined an Action Plan proposal for the Release (user centric) but the above model seems natural to me.
A general user DVD stripped of all the developer and server tools would be a great idea, it could focus on stuff lie how fast you can make Linux boot if you don't need to start a bunch of services most users don't need etc. (It should probably be the most tested DVD). I think a build aimed for servers / cloud instances would complement this well. Then we could encourage developers / power users, to do a net install and just install the patterns that they want but i think we should still at least build a one size fits all DVD similar to the current one for power users/ developers who need to set up multiple machines but don't want to go to the effort of setting up there own custom build on SUSE studio.
Though my conversations these past months with community contributors and SUSE employees from the product side the idea of a small and rock solid core where you can add packages easily to end up having your customized result (let's not called distro) in "almost installation" time is recurrent.
So in summary, I believe that with the proposed model we open the door for increasing these initiatives. It will be up to us (project) to define how to Govern them in a way that they add energy to the project by becoming an answer to a niche and to us (obviously to themselves too).
Initiatives that complement your project are always good news, I think.
I think as a whole this is a good initiative and that it can set openSUSE apart from others who generally just ship one DVD or split up based on window manager etc, rather then end users need.
If we are able to move into that direction, even a 5%, I think we would be able to increase our user base in a significant number.
Saludos
Have a good day, Simon
Saludos -- Agustin Benito Bethencourt openSUSE Team Lead at SUSE abebe@suse.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org