Hello, > Gesendet: Dienstag, 7. Januar 2025 um 10:43 > Von: "gene heskett" <ghesk...@shentel.net> > An: emc-developers@lists.sourceforge.net > Betreff: Re: [Emc-developers] Gentoo+LinuxCNC image update .... > > > > Any feedback is greatly appreciated. > I am for it, with my toothpick sized oar, debian came around and wanted > to add linuxcnc to the deb system. They have since filed more bugs > against it, trying to make it fit their idea of how it should work I > guess, but I don't see it as a plus for us. ...
I agree that the upload to Debian (which has indeed happened, see https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/linuxcnc) had no immediate affect on the capabilities of LinuxCNC. But somehow the number installations reported on popularity-contest is increasing (see https://qa.debian.org/popcon-graph.php?packages=linuxcnc-uspace) ever since. And with every installation comes some extra eyeballs that may improve something somewhere. Whenever someone sticks with the LinuxCNC community, it does not matter how they learned about the project. And newcomers will find it easiest to address some annoyance at the periphery (documentation, typos, tests, ...) as a start. This is also where I think LinuxCNC has improved a lot over the past years - both wrt to infrastructure and content. Some 40 years ago the term "Computer Integrated Manufactoring" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-integrated_manufacturing) came up. This is where I see the role of a distribution: Make stuff work with each other. To me, Debian is not about improving LinuxCNC itself. But people will look at it with very different perspectives. Some are mere technical like "security" or "incompatibilities with library updates". Others ask why it is so difficult to execute LinuxCNC from within FreeCAD. And maybe something then happens - preferably it is just something missing in the documentation. Parts of the tests on a software to interoperate correctly in a distribution are automated. There are certain paths that e.g. an icon for a desktop is supposed to be using, so that other tools can find that icon. Something executable should have a manual page with the same name, so the "man" application help spit out some help. The reports of such tests are published on https://udd.debian.org/lintian/?packages=linuxcnc . And a user that does not know about our GitHub repository can send bug reports to Debian's bug tracking system at https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?dist=unstable;package=linuxcnc-uspace . I think that LinuxCNC wins once it is obvious to everyone that the time invested is returned. And that LinuxCNC is secure and stable enough not to damage the hardware or the person using it. With every typo (in the code or the documentation) we likely lose a decision maker (be it a home shop or a developer of some larger machine manufacturer) to some closed source solution (that are hiding their typos :-) ) because of some felt insecurity. Therefore I cannot praise efforts like https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/pull/3253 or https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/pull/3233 enough that communicate an "attention to detail and correctness". And that communication is important to have not only for the outsiders to make a good first impression. It is also a perpetual reminder for ourselves. Happy New Year everyone Steffen _______________________________________________ Emc-developers mailing list Emc-developers@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers
