/usrmove? -> about the future

[Adam Williamson]

On Mon, 2012-02-13 at 14:47 +0100, Nils Philippsen wrote:
> On Fri, 2012-02-10 at 11:08 -0800, Adam Williamson wrote:
> > Let me put it this way, then: Fedora is released on a six month cycle,
> > which is far faster than is usually considered desirable for server
> > usage. It has a 13 month lifetime, which is far shorter than is usually
> > considered desirable for server usage. Its key values and goals are
> > assuredly not compatible with typical server usage - e.g. "First - We
> > believe in the power of innovation and showing off new work in our
> > releases. Since we release twice a year, you never have to wait long to
> > see the latest and greatest software, while there are other Linux
> > products derived from Fedora you can use for long-term stability. We
> > always keep Fedora moving forward so that you can see the future first."
> > There are numerous practical policies derived from these values which
> > are clearly not optimal for server usage, such as the short freeze
> > times, relatively low barrier of entry to disruptive features, and QA
> > focus on installation and basic desktop use (we do virtually no QA on
> > any kind of server usage). Finally, there are *several* Linux
> > distributions available which have none of the above 'shortcomings' (so
> > far as server usage is concerned).
> 
> I'd say the same 'shortcomings' also hurt the end user case. The
> non-technical people I deal with loathe how we often introduce new
> features and break stuff (or just their way of doing things) in the
> process, even in updates -- I've stopped counting the "Oh, updates. I
> wonder what you guys have broken now."-style comments by my wife. To me,
> Fedora is much better suited to be run on servers than by end users --
> admins usually can help themselves in these situations.
> 
> Don't take this as being against the slew of features Fedora introduces:
> personally I'm much in favor of systemd, the /usr move, pulseaudio and
> all that stuff -- there's no point in just treading water and being on
> the forefront of things is where Fedora is supposed to be. But let's not
> kid ourselves into thinking that with a life-cycle of only 13 months and
> the amount of change we introduce in each new release (especially on the
> desktop) we're somehow catering to end users who don't have a
> technically skilled spouse, relative or friend in the background to help
> if things don't work as expected.

That also, at least arguably, isn't Fedora's aim (if it was, we'd be
doing a terrible job of it, I agree). To cite the Board again:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/User_base

"Voluntary Linux consumer
Computer-friendly
Likely collaborator
General productivity user"

Those four - especially 'computer-friendly' and 'likely collaborator' -
don't scream 'end user' to me. My personal take has always been that
Fedora is not the friendly desktop operating system of today, but a
*prototype* of the friendly desktop operating system of tomorrow. A
constantly moving prototype - so it never sits still and becomes the
friendly desktop operating system of today. :)
-- 
Adam Williamson
Fedora QA Community Monkey
IRC: adamw | Twitter: AdamW_Fedora | identi.ca: adamwfedora
http://www.happyassassin.net