website mockups, what is fedora?

[Toshio Kuratomi]

On 08/21/2009 01:31 PM, Josh Boyer wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 12:33:48PM -0700, Toshio Kuratomi wrote:
>> On 08/21/2009 10:57 AM, John Poelstra wrote:
>>> Rex Dieter said the following on 08/21/2009 07:04 AM Pacific Time:
>>>> OK, I get the idea behind all of this, really I do.  Much of it is
>>>> great, but let me share what's been nagging at the back of my mind for
>>>> some time.  It's just been hard to put into words, so I'll try my best
>>>> here.
>>>>
>>>> Let's get back to the question: What is Fedora?
>>>
>>> The question of "What is Fedora" has still not adequately been answered
>>> for me.  Refocusing the download page is *part* of getting to answering
>>> the question, but I still do not believe we are as clear as we could be
>>> about what we *are* (present) and what we *want* to be (future).  I
>>> realize others believe that defining it too much will stifle the project.
>>>
>>
>> Fedora is the community of people who are involved with Fedora.
> 
> So we're FedoraSpace/FedoraBook?
> 
In a way.  But with different bells and whistles and tinsel.  Can't
forget the tinsel.  Let me put it this way -- At this point in time if
all of the people you respect within Fedora decided they were going to
go work on and use a different Linux distro, would you stay on and
continue to be a Board member, work on releng, hang out in the
#fedora-irc channels because you are primarily concerned with the Fedora
the Linux Distro or would you quietly check out the other Linux distro
and think seriously about switching since everyone you'd grown
comfortable with working with had moved over there?

>> I agree with this on a certain level and disagree with it on another
>> level.  I think that the Fedora Project should concentrate on being
>> stellar at community building.  The Fedora Product(s) should include a
>> "solid flexible base distro for many different purposes" which may well
>> be good without being great.  On top of that one product, we can create
>> other products that should strive to be great and focus on one area.
>> But the project as a whole should be diverse and try to make the "solid
>> flexible base" something that everyone can build on top of.
> 
> I'm sorry, but when I read this it sounds like you might as well be saying
> "Fedora is a social networking experiment centered around creating a marginal
> distro of new stuff that other people polish up."
> 
> I'm pretty sure that isn't what you intended at all, but it's exactly what
> a newbie might interpret.  And it sounds pretty boring to me.
> 
<nod>
More like:

Fedora is a social networking experiment which produces both a boring
old base for producing distros and a highly polished, up-to-date,
innovative desktop for people to use.

ie: we should be creating both the "Desktop Spin" which is what most
end-users download, get excited about, brag about using to their
friends; and the infrastructure and packages to allow people to create
other spins.

I think this aligns well with our current stated goals and direction --
but not entirely with poelcat's vision which is why I wanted to write it.

(And come to that, the Free Software Movement as a whole is a social
networking experiment which produces both boring and exciting stuff.  I
just think that Fedora can do the social part better than average.)

-Toshio

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