[Fedora-ambassadors-list] The Grumpy Editor's Obviously Incorrect 2006 Predictions -- Jonathan Corbet/lwn.net

[Thorsten Leemhuis]

Just FYI:

http://lwn.net/Articles/165351/

[...]
The Fedora project will have to make changes to preserve developer and
user interest in 2006. Fedora is still hard to contribute to, its
decision process is relatively opaque, the promised Fedora Foundation is
missing, the short support period keeps users on an upgrade treadmill,
Fedora Legacy is not staffed at a level where it can be relied upon,
and, crucially, other free, leading-edge distributions (OpenSUSE,
Ubuntu) are increasingly competing for the same users. Fedora remains a
top-quality distribution, but it risks losing some of the user and
developer energy which makes it an important distribution.
[...]

We IMHO should discuss about this and maybe someone (e.g. not me; not
enough time) should talk to Corbet about this. Not that is wrong in
general, but I would be interested in details especially behind these
paragraph to make things better in the future:

* Fedora is still hard to contribute to,
  For Fedora Core this seems true. Could we people at least give the
feeling somehow that it's possible to contribute to Fedora Core?

* its decision process is relatively opaque,
  For Fedora Core I agree; For the other Fedora Projects: Is it really?
What do we need to make better?

* the promised Fedora Foundation is missing,
  From the outside it seems so. But that hopefully gets better (soon?)

* the short support period keeps users on an upgrade treadmill,
  Agreed. One is practically forced to update to each release because
updates stop for Core n-1 when the Test2 release of n+1 is released. I
think I know the reasons behind this decision, but it IMHO would look *a
lot better* if we would support n-1 until n+1 is released +4 weeks

* Fedora Legacy is not staffed at a level where it can be relied upon,
  I have the same feeling as a outsider (never used it)

* and, crucially, other free, leading-edge distributions (OpenSUSE,
Ubuntu) are increasingly competing for the same users.
  Agreed

Just my 2 cent.

/me wonders if we should use fedora-devel for this discussion, but
sticks to fedora-ambassadors-list(a)redhat.com for now

CU
thl

[Tejas Dinkar]

On Thu, 2006-01-12 at 07:31 +0100, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
>  Just FYI:
>  
>  http://lwn.net/Articles/165351/
>  
>  [...]
>  The Fedora project will have to make changes to preserve developer and
>  user interest in 2006. Fedora is still hard to contribute to, its
>  decision process is relatively opaque. 
I won't comment on this. However, this IS the general opinion of ALL the
people that I have met. And not the johnny-come-lately who just picked a
copy of FC, and decided to crib, but people who have been around for
ages.

Whatever has happened so far, the general public is STILL under the
impression that we are the ginuea pigs for RHEL.

I won't name names, but this is the general opinion I have picked up in
MY experiences of using/promoting Fedora.

>  /me wonders if we should use fedora-devel for this discussion, but
>  sticks to fedora-ambassadors-list(a)redhat.com for now 
Well, it is us ambassadors who are going to be asked these questions
when we talk. It is a good thing that you gave us the heads up...

Gja

--
Tejas Dinkar - tejasdinkar AT gmail DOT com

furbling, v.:
	Having to wander through a maze of ropes at an airport or bank
	even when you are the only person in line.
		-- Rich Hall, "Sniglets"

[Greg DeKoenigsberg]

On Thu, 12 Jan 2006, Tejas Dinkar wrote:

>  Whatever has happened so far, the general public is STILL under the
>  impression that we are the guinea pigs for RHEL. 
Because it's true.  We've done a lot of good work, but this is still
absolutely true -- and Red Hat, as a company, needs to decide if we're
willing to do what it takes to change this fact.

Which I, and a lot of other people, are working on.

--g

---------------------------------------------------------------
Greg DeKoenigsberg || Fedora Foundation || fedoraproject.org
Be an Ambassador || http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors
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[Rahul Sundaram]

Hi

> Whatever has happened so far, the general public is STILL under the
> impression that we are the ginuea pigs for RHEL.
>
>   
>  
Fedora Core roughly maps to RHEL but there are several other projects 
like Extra, docs and ambassadors that revolve around the external 
community with no mapping to the EL line. RHEL updates do not directly 
tie to Fedora release schedule. Remember Fedora is beyond just Core itself.

> >/me wonders if we should use fedora-devel for this discussion,
> but
> >sticks to fedora-ambassadors-list(a)redhat.com for now
> >    
> > 
Fedora-marketing might be a better place. I wanted to start a discussion 
on this there but haven't had time yet.

-- 
Rahul 

Fedora Bug Triaging - http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/BugZappers