Stable Release Updates types proposal (was Re: Fedora Board Meeting Recap 2010-03-11)

[Bruno Wolff III]

On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 15:31:26 -0600,
  Matthew Woehlke <mw_triad at users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
> 
> Ubuntu's method satisfies more users, that is why they use Ubuntu. 
> People¹ use Fedora because it is leading edge. If we sacrifice that 
> identity, then people¹ won't have any reason to use Fedora over Ubuntu.
> 
> (¹not everyone, true, but we've shown that there /are/ such people)

But are there more that use it because it is free or more ammeniable to
new contributors or perhaps other reasons?

> I am curious why the folks on the 'stable' side think that throwing out 
> one of Fedora's distinguishing qualities to make us look more like 
> Ubuntu will give us more users. Usually you don't win people over by 
> imitating the competition, but by offering something unique.

It's not just more users, it might be more contributors, particularly
contributors that aren't going to be packagers. (I am in the process of
trying to encourage some people with experience in project management to
take a look at Fedora. If the Fedora Desktop fails for any of them that
does take a look, it's going to be a lost opportunity for Fedora to pick
up some help in an area we are lacking in help.)

> Maybe by chasing "stable" you will find more users, but I think you will 
> lose adventurous users in the doing. I also think that the sort of user 
> you are likely to pi^H^Hirritate are the ones more likely to contribute, 
> and the ones you are going to attract are more likely to be 
> uncontributing leaches.

There are plenty of ways to be adventerous in Fedora. I think the project can
more onus on the tinkerer types and provide a more usable Desktop for
everyone. If you want to tinker, there is rawhide, the branched prerelease
(a lot of the time), grabbing selective packages from either, rebuilding
SRPMS locally and probably other ways. What's better about this, is you can
can selectively tinker with what you are interested in, rather than having
to tinker with lots of things you might not be and at inopportune times.