Response to "Getting Fedora Out of the If-Then Loop"

Thomas Janssen thomasj at fedoraproject.org
Sat Feb 20 17:51:20 UTC 2010


2010/2/20 Paul W. Frields <stickster at gmail.com>:
> On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 08:44:56PM -0500, Máirín Duffy wrote:
>> Hi Greg,
>>
>> On Thu, 2010-02-18 at 17:30 -0500, Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote:
>> > Think of it this way: every Fedora subproject, from the lowest SIG to the
>> > loftiest, competes for resources, to a greater or lesser extent.
>> >
>> > Like the homepage, for instance.  The homepage of redhat.com, for example,
>> > is the subject of insanely brutal infighting, because everyone wants to
>> > see their baby get equal treatment.  Which is fair, btw, and which we will
>> > see more and more in Fedora-land as we continue to discuss issues of
>> > "focus".
>> >
>> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_economy
>> >
>> > "Attention", or "focus" if you prefer, is a scarce resource.  If you work
>> > on KDE or Xfce, and all of the conversation is continually around "focus",
>> > and it seems like that "focus" discussion continues to be "a usability
>> > focus on the primary spin," then one wonders "will I have access to these
>> > resources?"  In fact, one knows the answer, and therefore doesn't bother
>> > to ask.
>>
>> Those resources are not as fluid or transferable as they seem in the
>> abstract, though. Adam enjoys working on XFCE. Nobody is going to force
>> him to stop working on it - it's just not reasonable. I have no QT or
>> KDE app design expertise. If we suddenly decided to focus on the KDE
>> spin as the default spin, am I going to be expected to start churning
>> out mockups for KDE apps or am I going to be prevented from continuing
>> to work on mockups for GTK+-based apps?
>>
>> There's a reality here that's not being acknowledged, and it has little
>> to do with popularity. I hope folks who work on XFCE or KDE in Fedora
>> don't come into those projects with the expectation that the same amount
>> of resources are dedicated to those as the desktop spin - because that's
>> never been true, and I sure hope they've not been misled into thinking
>> so. If I go to a Honda dealer in order to buy a Chevy I saw an ad for in
>> the paper, I do go with the full understanding that they're a Honda
>> dealership and don't argue with the dealer that he should have that used
>> Cobalt in red, blue, and silver as well as black.
> [...snip...]
>
> It's important we realize this isn't just about spins or desktop
> environments.  It's also about the people who work on QA, release
> engineering, docs, marketing, testing, and so forth.  Since time
> immemorial we've had unresolved questions about how to resolve
> conflicts between how our technology moves, what should be documented
> by default, how QA picks targets for testing... all of these questions
> have been around for a while.  In part we're trying to acknowledge
> those issues and move on.  At the same time, recognizing those areas
> may have scant resources, we want to identify the gaps they create
> clearly.  That way, contributors *know where their help is needed*,
> and also have the opportunity to gather like-minded people to work on
> closing them.

Interesting. As the KDE SIG decided (IIRC it was pointed out that we
need that) that we do better QA for the KDE Desktop spin, i sent a
mail to the list introduced myself and applied for the QA group in
FAS. I still wait to get approved for QA. I dont want to say it's
because of KDE is not part of the QA work that's going on. I just want
to show that it's frustrating to want to do the work, already doing
the work (as possible), but not getting applied.

-- 
LG Thomas

Dubium sapientiae initium


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