GNOME as the default desktop (was Re: Fedora Board Meeting Minutes - 2010-12-06)

[Christoph Wickert]

Am Donnerstag, den 16.12.2010, 08:43 +0000 schrieb "Jóhann B.
Guðmundsson":
> On 12/16/2010 12:40 AM, Jared K. Smith wrote:
> > I've asked for
> > clarification and more details from the Desktop team at Red Hat, so
> > that I have a better picture of exactly what it is that they would
> > like us to do.  I'd hate to make assumptions before I have the whole
> > picture.  Once I do have a clearer picture, then we can work together
> > as a community to find the right answer, and hopefully one that is a
> > win-win situation for all involved.
> 
> I think you are going about this the wrong way as in by asking them for 
> clarifications.
> 
> What I think you should be doing is finding out why they aren't 
> communicating and collaborating more openly and better with the community.

I think Jared just an important point, not sure if he was actually aware
of it or if it was just a Freudian slip: Jared mentioned the desktop
team of *Red* *Hat*. It's not the desktop team of Fedora but of Red Hat.
10 out of 11 team members work for Red Hat, and the 11th, now inactive
member used to work for Red Hat too.

KDE SIG: 36 members, 4 work for Red Hat.
Xfce SIG: 11 members, all from the community.
LXDE SIG: 8 members, all from the community.

> They are doing and deciding everything behind closed doors and they are 
> getting a *special* treatment in the project [...]

... because they work for Red Hat. Note that I'm not saying they are
evil people, it's just in the nature of things they operate behind
closed doors. It is so much easier to quickly go from one cube to the
next to make a decision than having to bother with a committee, a
mailing list or the many voices of the community.

Nevertheless I think the desktop SIG could be more open:
      * They could publish their meeting minutes in the wiki (last
        minutes published are from 2007).
      * They were asked to move their channel over to freenode or be in
        the regular #fedora* channels, but they refused.
      * Instead of demanding people to get involved in the desktop SIG
        they should ask themselves why this happened in the past
        although it worked for all other SIGs.

Regards,
Christoph