David Zeuthen wrote:
So I think this thread shows we need to figure this out; it's
pretty
clear that the status quo where the combined desktop livecd product is
everyones responsibility (through maintaining their own packages) means
that it's no-ones responsibility. We have a lot of low-hanging fruit
just *waiting* to be picked up (the firewall problem is one such) but
typically such work requires coordination, education and banner carrying
across multiple areas both inside and outside the desktop live cd space.
I'm wondering if it would be useful to hold a Fedora-specific desktop
summit type of meeting to first come up with the Fedora-specific desktop
vision for the desktop livecd product, then to hash out the projects and
their respective work items needed to achieve the vision (or at least a
first phase of it.) Post-meeting, I think you would need at least one if
not more champions for the whole project (I don't like the term
dictator) to keep things moving forward and to motivate the folks
working on tasks in the plan.
We did something like this for the spins site at the last FUDcon and I
think the meeting was really successful in developing a common shared
vision for where we wanted to project to go. I think we came into the
room having some very different ideas, and walked away from the room in
agreement of where we wanted to be. Although that particular project is
stalled somewhat because there aren't many people working on it at the
moment, because we have that shared vision we do know what we have to do
(it's just an issue of time/manpower atm).
Is this situation a simple manpower issue? It seems not and, at least
looking at this thread, there may not even be a shared vision for the
desktop livecd. There appears to be no single vision that is really
documented/written out/demonstrated anywhere public (if there is though,
great!) There seem to be many that perhaps live only in individual
posters' minds. (And when posters write out their visions on this
mailing list I find it hard to even focus on the ideas because of the
poor / jarringly hostile delivery)
I think maybe some kind of vision document would go a long way towards
moving forward though. What are our shortcomings now => where we should
be. What are the low-hanging fruit you mentioned? Are they listed out or
described anywhere? We need a compelling story to tell. Could the ideal
Fedora desktop user experience be storyboarded out, maybe have a few
storyboards drawn out for scenarios under a few themes, such as
security, content sharing, backup/storage, communication, upgrading, etc.
Anyway this is just an idea, *please* don't flame me. I am posting this
in hope that it might spark some more (hopefully better) ideas for
moving forward.
Thanks,
~m