On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 11:41 AM, Lucas Nussbaum <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > I received a few requests for hardware purchases, that I think are worth > discussing with the project as a whole in order to progress towards > having clear guidelines for what is acceptable and what isn't in terms > of spending Debian money. > > Please provide feedback on the proposed decisions -- they are not final > yet. > > > A. Memory expansion cards for m68k buildds (expected cost: 500 EUR) > =================================================================== > > Widely quoting from a private mail: > | Debian has an unofficial m68k ("Amiga") port. It became unofficial > | mainly because build daemons were not fast enough to keep up with > | security updates in a timely manner. The port has an active developers > | community (see https://lists.debian.org/debian-68k/). Debian is the only > | Linux distribution with a working m68k port, and m68k is still popular > | among fans of retro computers. It takes little financial effort to keep > | the port running; what is needed is money for small hardware upgrades. > > I'm inclined to APPROVE the request, for the following reasons: > - even if the port is unofficial, and is very unlikely to become an > official port again in the future, it benefits from an active > developers community composed of several DDs. > - experience has shown that porting work on one architecture often > benefits other architectures (since similar problems show up > across different architectures). > - the amount of requested money is relatively low. > > Obviously, the following conditions would apply: > 1) the hardware bought would have to go to buildds used through > debian-ports.org, and/or to porter boxes that are widely open to the > Debian community. > 2) if the machine stops being used for Debian-related work, the > hardware must be transferred to another DD. > > > B. Powerful machine for d-i development (expected cost: 1.5k-2k EUR?) > ===================================================================== > > A debian-installer developer writes: >> up to now, I've always used my own hardware for Debian work, but I'd >> like that to change slightly due to my work on d-i. I intend to work on >> at least the following topics: >> 1. performing more frequent d-i uploads: >> http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2013/10/msg00194.html >> 2. implementing some kind of official images with backported linux >> kernels (and possibly other needed bits from the right suite); >> 3. implementing automated regression testing, so that we can work >> properly on 1., 2., and also on stable uploads; dailies would also >> benefit from that; people from -cd@ (Steve, mostly) would probably >> appreciate it as well. >> >> Some desktop machine with fast disc(s), a bunch of RAM and some CPU >> power would be nice, so that I could play with a bunch of VMs (most >> likely, primary targets will be amd64 and i386, but virtually anything >> qemu can deal with). Some disc space to hold a local (possibly partial) >> mirror would be a plus, since there's plenty of deb/udeb fetching during >> d-i builds and when testing installation. >> >> Do you think something can be arranged on Debian funds to that effect? >> If that looks reasonable, any specific site/vendor I should be looking >> into to come up with some specs that would be nice to have, so that you >> ACK/NACK it? In which case, any upper bound? Or any other ideas? Of >> course the HW can be shipped over to the next person wanting to work >> that much on d-i in case/when I start burning out. (FWIW I don't plan on >> leaving the d-i RM position before jessie is released. ;)) >> >> [ Also, I do realize having some nice hardware racked up in some >> datacenter would be nice for testing purposes, but until automated >> regression testing is implemented, one needs to rely on clicking and >> typing into a VM, so as to debug/develop some framework to perform >> automated testing. A datacenter-hosted machine would also not help with >> the “preparing an upload” side, which still needs some trusted, local >> machine IMVHO. ] > > I'm inclined to APPROVE the request, for the following reasons: > - the machine would be primarly (only?) used for working on Debian > - the specifics of the tasks justify hardware hosted locally (VNC to > a remote machine is possible of course, but latency makes it quite > inefficient to do testing that way) > > Of course, as quoted in the original mail, if the DD were to stop their > involvement in d-i development before the machine reaches its end-of-life, > the machine would have to be shipped to someone else. > > > C. Laptop for developer (expected cost: 1k-1.5k EUR?) > ===================================================== > > A DD is asking for help to buy a new laptop. He maintains or participates in > the maintenance of a few medium-to-large packages. His only mobile computer is > an Atom-based netbook with a rather small screen, which is not powerful enough > to do packaging work (he also has a desktop computer). He describes himself as > a "first world middle class person", is currently a student, and cannot afford > to spend money on hardware. > > I'm not sure of what to do: > - Debian cannot afford to buy hardware for every DD > - But many DDs don't need Debian to buy hardware for them > - This machine is more general-purpose, not specific to Debian work than in > (B) > > So far, I answered with the following question: >> How much do you honestly think that this purchase will increase your >> Debian productivity? > > But I would welcome other ideas of criterias to apply here.
Lucas, I am in favor of funding A and B, but not C. (Basically, with my fundraising hat on, I am using the simple but subjective criteria, would I be willing to write to a sponsor and explain that X amount of money was spent in a certain way.) In addition, with C it's more complicated as it sets a precedent that I don't believe we can afford to set. e.g - Conservatively speaking even if only 5% of DDs are in a similar position, that would open up 50 * $1000-1500 of potential requests, or $50,000-$75,000, for laptops. That said, it does seem that the situation with C is suboptimal, and perhaps he could try to see if any DDs have a spare laptop that they could lend/give, as even a 5-6 year old laptop seems that it would be better than what he has now? -Brian > Lucas -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected] Archive: http://lists.debian.org/CACFaiRy4c4VsVb2LdFva6QFqHxn2LE7AGUGoqJUQJovu=uf...@mail.gmail.com
