Fedora Spins and "where will this end?"

[Sebastian Dziallas]

Sebastian Dziallas schrieb:
> Hi all,
> 
> as you may have noticed, there has been a kind of discussion concerning 
> the future spins for F10 (and later) on this list. I was just drawing up 
> some statements for a possible Fedora EDU Math Spin [1] (note: this is 
> just a draft for now), but I think there are some points, which should 
> be mentioned.
> 
> The question I would like to ask is: "Where will all this lead to?"
> 
> I need to explain some things:
> 
> I created some time ago this roadmap [2] for the education SIG. In one 
> of our first meetings, we decided to focus first on applications for 
> mathematical purposes - that's how the idea of this EDU Math spin was 
> born. On the other hand, I'm aware of the fact (due to some discussions 
> I had with Warren at the beginning) that there are others, who're 
> building as well spins: Warren announced a K12LTSP spin including his 
> LTSP5-work [3], even if I don't know, how the current state is there [4].
> 
> So far so good, but what else do we have? The Astronomy SIG is preparing 
> an astronomy spin, too [5]. And I would bet that there'll be an OLPC (or 
> more specific: a sugar-based) spin more than soon [6] - this has also 
> already been mentioned three month ago in one of the education SIG's 
> meetings [7].
> 
> But then, have we already covered all possible topics - even if we stick 
> with the educational purposes for now? I tend to say no! There might be 
> still some place for an Fedora Education Language Spin (hey, why don't 
> why split this one up? - Fedora Education Language English and Fedora 
> Education Language German spin are awaiting their maintainers!)...
> 
> Sorry, this might somehow sound inappropriate, but that is just the way 
> it is. Don't get me wrong - I'm even myself a member of the Spin SIG and 
> I applaud everyone's efforts to make use of this innovative technology - 
> and I'm not going to blame anyone for his/her work, but still: I think 
> it's obvious that we're going to run into trouble that way...
> 
> What do you think?
> 
> Sebastian
> 
> ---
> 
> [1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Education
> [2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/Education/Roadmap
> [3] 
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-February/msg00888.html 
> 
> [4] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/K12Linux
> [5] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/Astronomy/Spin
> [6] 
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-July/msg00926.html
> [7] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/Education/Meetings/2008-05-09

(Yeah, I know, somewhat odd to reply to myself, but there's something to 
add)

By the way: I think, the question is also: Who is going to use all these 
spins? Is the average user downloading three different education spins? 
Or isn't he just moving to another distribution with an all-in-one solution?

We had such a discussion in one of the education SIG meetings... 
somebody predicted teachers asking their students to insert spin 17B for 
the current lesson.

...just my two cents ;)

Sebastian