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

Paul Frields stickster at gmail.com
Sun Feb 21 01:09:24 UTC 2010


On Saturday, February 20, 2010, Paul Frields <stickster at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, February 20, 2010, Mike McGrath <mmcgrath at redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, 20 Feb 2010, Thomas Janssen wrote:
>>
>>> 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
> Mike, I know you're excruciatingly busy, as are we all, but it is very
> important especially when dealing with people who are using English as
> a second language to rake the time to be a bit more verbose. To a ESL
> person this message might be interpreted to mean "you're going to be
> kept waiting still." I know that is not at all what you meant but it's
> best to use the opportunity when you reply to point the OP to the
> right thing to do. Saves a lot of time in misunderstandings.

I apologize to Mike and the list -- that reply was not meant for the
list and I forgot that my phone interface does things differently from
mutt on my PC. I'm sorry, everyone.

Paul


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