Draft Product Description for Fedora Workstation

[Josh Boyer]

On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 2:49 PM, Reindl Harald <h.reindl at thelounge.net> wrote:
>
>
> Am 04.11.2013 20:43, schrieb Josh Boyer:
>> On Mon, Nov 4, 2013 at 2:34 PM, Reindl Harald <h.reindl at thelounge.net> wrote:
>>> and why do different distributions exist?
>>> guess what: because they have different goals and userbases
>>>
>>> otherwise we could join all distributions in a big one with
>>> doing all but nothing good
>>>
>>> i started to *really* use Fedora at a time where Ubuntu got
>>> really popular and i took Fedora and built a ecosystem around
>>> it because Fedora is waht it is - don't taint that
>>
>> The addition of a new piece of functionality does not immediately
>> taint or modify the core of what Fedora is.  Maybe instead of just
>> steadfastly asserting there should be no Change, you could work _with_
>> people as they try to include Change to address specific needs that
>> aren't being met.
>>
>> Successful distros are evolutionary projects.  There is no "done" or
>> "final state" with them.  That doesn't mean they rip out the core
>> concepts and start over, but it does mean they adapt to new usecases
>> and challenges as they come up
>
> that's all true but you can be pretty sure if a "app-store" with
> bundeled applications exists *nobody* would package and maintain
> them as RPM -> everybody would point with his finger to the app

That remains entirely to be seen.  I can certainly see things starting
in the app store while they're new and unstable in terms of ABI/API,
and migrating to the distro as they mature.  I mean, that's
essentially how things work today, it's just that we suck at making it
easy for people to consume those new things right now.  Also, if we
are the ones providing the app store then we're certainly able to
monitor that more closely.

(I'm not entirely sure at what point "app store" came into the
discussion to be honest.  There's a big difference between "app store"
and "containerized apps".)

> if it goes in that direction, and it starts faster than anybody likes
> you do a dramatical harm to the userbase which likes the consistent
> package managment and *really used* conecpt of shared libraries

For a large number of upstream projects, they don't care at all about
being in a distro.  They just focus on their project and someone else
integrates it into the distro.  Containerized apps are just another
way to do that.

I understand your concern and it is something we should watch for, but
I don't think avoiding doing it is going to be a good long term
solution.  Like everything else in life, there has to be balance.

josh