Just my 2 eurocent: >From: Warly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Mandrake Linux is based on a fixed date releasing due to market >constraints (distributor/supplier schedules). As a consequence the >release date was scheduled 3 months ago. On this date we have a >very little margin of 2 or 3 days, but not more. > >So the datum is: "release date is March the 15th". > >In a few days 8.2 updates will be released, and them you will have >the real stable and polished distro you want. > >Debian has no real realease date, as a consequence doing a stable >release is just a piece of cake, anybody can do it. > >Maybe our model is not good.
Well, it has taken you so far as we are today, where Mandrake is one of the most popular distros in the world, and rising. Not bad! I actually think the free beta-testing is something that can improve the quality of the product. Of cause most things can be improved, and this probably also applies to Mandrake. >I do think that our model is not so bad, and that we are reaching a >good compromise between cutting edge and stability, but /this/ >compromise _is needed_. Yes, some compromises needs to be made. But what are the goals? I see some of the goals as: 1. a distro filled with features 2. a distro easy to install and use 3. a distro for the world market 4. a distro without (many) errors I think MDK is doing well on 1. and 2. Some ideas: 1. MDK could have newer features available via the net, afther the distri is burned in stone. (This also goes for error corrections) rpmdrake goes a long way for this, but I think there is some room for improvement (or maybe it is just me not knowing what rpmdrake can do) Specifically I would like it to be easy to get to the contributed sections, I did not find it easily documented in 8.2. It could be that all the cds be intitally available in the distro, and that you then can chose multiple sources for each of the cds, and also the contrib which is not on cds. Getting access to all of what suse is providing on its dvd, but most via the net, some via the cds. This could be integrated already in the install process, given that most have internet access nowadays, although many only with a 56 kbit modem. With 256 kbit adsl it becomes feasible to do quite a lot of the installation via the net. Eg just having one cd and then the rest available via the net could be a quite attractive installation method for ADSL users. 2. I would like DrakX and rpmdrake to be better integrated, or with more common code. Basically you should be able to do drakx in multiuser mode, and another idea: do drakx in multiuser and then generate a new clean boot file system. Then I could do some other work on my machine while installing, and I could even maybe have automated my installs of betas. Given that testing is critical and one of MDKs perceived shortcomings (wrt RedHat) this could improve time available for testing, and probably also help other people. 3. A distro for the world market - My background here is that I have done a lot of translations to Danish for Mandrake. And I have done quite some translations for GNU, gnome, kde etc. I would like a scheme where we had as little as possible missing in translations, and there is a problem here. At some time, something like one or two months before release date, mandrakesoft choses a text base for gnome, kde, gnu etc. And there is no way to improve the translations, although that does not change features. So even if translations improve in the gnome, kde, gnu trees these are not brought over to the distro. In this way we will never be able to get a distro with fully translated versions. We need to rethink this strategy, possibly with translation updates quite late in the beta process, or a specific translation tree for the distro for kde, gnome etc, or maybe specific arrangements with each maintainer of the gnome/kde packets to generate a specific branch for the Mandrake distro that is feature frozen. (of cause this could be limited to the packages that Mandrakesoft find strategic or needed or whatever criteria you may have. 4. I would like to do more hybrid installation processes as described a little above. But this could also imply that there be a development version (cooker, mandrakefreq) and then a stable mandrake, and that stable mandrake is being worked on as a feature frozen distro, but easy to get at with all bug fixes and translation fixes. That is, rpmdrake could check whether there are fixes for translations available via the net and then install these fixes if the user approves. 5. Also thinking a little of business models, you can think of all the businesses and public services installing MDK which are saving a bundle, and ways to get them to contribute. Financially and also by doing work. One way was to ask them under the installation process about such things and making them want to contribute. Maybe somebody cleverer than me can think of which arguments to use, and which services to offer like support and such, and MDK already does so. MDK could also do some funding of volunteers or institute one or more Mandrake software prizes or some such way for business to levy their bad conscience with paying in cash, which is probably easier for them than contributing work in many cases. Mostly as using MDK could release some money used for Microsoft licenses, while work load is not so easy to loosen up. Or you could advocate that a business allow their employees to use a few hours per month to contribute to MDK and other OSS. I think that trying to tie in ordinary users is a move that should not be overdone. I think suse is losing out on this one, and microsoft in essence lets this go on. A lot of users only buy MS Windows with their PC an then upgrade "free of charge". Squeeze them a little but try to make them allies. The user friendliness is probably one of MDKs strongpoints, and could be a the trojan horse into the corporate networks, and server networks, like it was for Microsoft. Oh, that was 5 eurocents, hope some ideas are useful. keld
