potential action items from GNOME 3 & F15 drama

Max Spevack mspevack at fedoraproject.org
Fri Dec 17 02:28:59 UTC 2010


Several people have lamented that there are no POTENTIAL ACTION ITEMS 
coming out of this giant discussion.  This mail is my attempt to put 
something on the table, in an effort to move the conversation in the 
direction of coming to some decisions.

--Max

****************

== Giving things the most accurate names possible ==

Revisit the (IMHO wrong) decision to not call the "Fedora Desktop" the 
"Fedora GNOME Desktop" and correct this naming for F15 and onward.  Do 
this in time for F15 Alpha.

This is entirely separate from the decision of which spin is featured as 
the default Fedora download, and I'm *not* trying to re-start that 
conversation.

== Wallpaper ==

Decide a simple yes or no to the request to make F15's GNOME wallpaper 
the same as upstream.  If yes, make it clear that this is a ONE TIME 
exception to our normal processes.

Similarly, decide that all the other F15 spins will feature a custom 
wallpaper as always, and that this will be the plan for *everything* 
down the road.

== Marketing & PR opportunity ==

GNOME 3 and F15 is an opportunity to create some mutual wins.

A major new version of GNOME is clearly something that would be part of 
Fedora's marketing efforts for whichever version of Fedora that new 
version lands in.

As I understand it, Fedora is almost certain to be the first of the 
"major" distributions to carry GNOME 3.

As several people have alluded to, there is an opportunity here for 
Fedora's marketing team and GNOME's marketing team to work together on a 
number of major wins, which could also include Red Hat's PR team.

Some ideas that have value to both GNOME and Fedora, or to GNOME and Red 
Hat:

  * In-depth reporting about the key additions to GNOME 3, with all 
screencasts and screenshots and tutorials using Fedora.

  * Interviews with key developers who are part of GNOME and/or Fedora & 
RH.

  * An opportunity for Red Hat's desktop team to have some PR that talks 
about Red Hat's contributions to upstream GNOME, its leadership, etc.

  * Fedora could step up its presence at events like GUADEC and the other 
GNOME summits, and do a better job of making sure that upstream GNOME 
and Fedora are on the same page.  You'd think this wouldn't be so hard, 
given that so much upstream GNOME is also Red Hat Desktop team and 
Fedora Desktop SIG.

  * GNOME loudly endorses Fedora as the distro of choice for GNOME users 
and developers, and updates its marketing and web sites to reflect this.

NOTE THAT THE ABOVE DOES NOT PREVENT FEDORA FROM DOING VERY SIMILAR 
THINGS WHEN NEW VERSIONS OF OTHER DESKTOPS ARE RELEASED.  IT IS NOT A 
ZERO SUM GAME.

Fedora Marketing can make a decision like this *regardless* of the 
answer to the initial question of whether or not to make F15's GNOME 
desktop as close to upstream GNOME 3 as possible.


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