On 04/09/2010 11:32 AM, Matt Kraai wrote:
I've created a couple of pages on the Debian Wiki to start a Debian
Yeeloong project, whose aim is to ensure full support for the Lemote
Yeeloong in Debian. You can find them at
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianYeeloong
Based on your experiences with the Debian Eee PC project, do you have
any advice on how to make the Yeeloong project successful?
Matt,
Nice! Well, we have always tried to stay as little divergent from
Debian as possible, working with upstreams (principally: acpi4asus,
debian-kernel, Debian X strike force, linux-wireless and netdev) to
ensure patches move to stable upstream as soon as possible and then have
patches applied in Debian. Also, rather than focus so much on
uniqueness of the eeepc (small screen, low power CPU, etc.) it has been
helpful to think of the sameness with other systems. That is, it is,
after all, just another PC, mostly used by desktop users. Although it
is underpowered and small, neither of those things are particularly
new. So in thinking about our users' needs, we try not to narrowly
define our vision of the netbook as a class of device requiring a
certain kind of user interface, or certain special tools on the
desktop. You can run GNOME, KDE, LXDE, Xmonad, or whatever floats your
boat on it, even console-only ... We have users who run the whole gamut
of these choices.
But certainly the custom installer was a great way to bootstrap the
project, and build a community from end-users who otherwise wouldn't
have had the patience to install things the long way, and having our own
repository eased the process too. However, we needed to keep our
primary goal: mainstream everything into Debian, in the forefront, so
that now with Squeeze a short way ahead, we will no longer need either
of these things.
The wiki is a key ingredient, but takes a lot of work to keep up-to-date
with the huge number of different models in the eeepc line, not to
mention all of the usual trials that go along with trying to keep all of
the suggestions accurate and keep the structure from turning into a
tangly mess. One of the less-successful things about our wiki is the
initial spurt of enthusiastic translation effort which then diminished,
letting all of the translations fall into disrepair. This occasionally
causes problems with non-native-English speaking users consulting
obsolete information in their language, and then failing to check the
English wiki until after we've puzzled over it for a while.
I'm sure it goes without saying that the mailing list, git repository
and irc channels together are vital channels of communication between
developers, between users, and between developers & users. My own blog
postings and "bits" to d-d-a were also a way to reach out a bit broader
into the community at large, but not, I think, very essential to our
success, except maybe moreso in the initial phase of the project before
we had established a core support & development group.
Paying attention to related projects has been important as well. A
number of us hang out on the general #eeepc channel on irc.freenode.net
and also in times past we have consulted the forums at eeeuser.com, as
many of the things we use, no matter what the OS, are in come: first,
the hardware itself, and then the drivers, etc. that we all share in common.
But I don't think we would have been quite so successful without a great
deal of good fortune: the eeepc really captured the attention of the
public, and this fuelled a lot of purchases and therefore gave us a lot
of enthusiastic developers and users who have made the project a real
success.
Good luck with your efforts!
Ben
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