On behalf of the Technical Board, I've been working with the flavour leads, as well as prospective new flavour leads, to address the concerns raised in this thread.
I think we reached a conclusion at the Ubuntu Summit in Prague, including on specific drafts for a documented process and specific edits to existing documentation. I intend for this email to serve to get everything down for the record, and to share with others who are interested. Scope of relevant teams ======================= The distinction between what is covered by the Technical Board directly and what is delegated to the Release Team is not formally documented anywhere. Since I’m on the Technical Board but not on the Release Team, it’s probably worth clarifying this. In general, what I expect is that a new flavour will require final approval of the Technical Board, and there may be other points on which the Technical Board will make a decision without having delegated it. However, the specifics of the process including technical implementation and the provision of appropriate expertise will be the responsibility of the Release Team. This includes the maintenance of any documentation of these specifics as the Release Team feels appropriate. The flavour team is expected to “do the work” under the guidance and direction of the Release Team under this process. New flavour process =================== I've documented initial steps at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecognizedFlavors/NewFlavorProcess Any community member interested in starting a new flavour should start on this page. Please point them that way, and update any links as appropriate. These steps are intended to be minimal, mostly non-technical, and geared at connecting prospective new flavours with the Release Team, who will be able to specify relevant requirements as they apply at the time. General requirements to become and remain a recognized flavor ============================================================= These are part of the Release Team's documentation at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/RecognizedFlavors I've renamed and adjusted this section. Prospective flavours should use these requirements as a rough guide only. The Release Team and/or Technical Board may adjust the general requirements this from time to time, so it's essential to be in contact with the Release Team by following the process mentioned above to avoid surprises. What I've not covered ===================== A wide range of concerns were raised by various people. To make progress, I've tried to better define and improve what I perceived to be the major issue that led to this thread, which was mainly involving communication and mismatched expectations. On specific technical questions and issues related to the rolling of flavour images, I think these should primarily be the concern of the Release Team and not the Technical Board directly. By making sure that prospective flavours have a point of contact on the Release Team, I hope these can be addressed, and any general process documented as needed, on a case-by-case basis and through that point of contact. On concerns about lack of documentation, I make the observation that new flavours are rare, engineering time is scarce, and therefore any documentation in this area is likely to be out of date soon after it is written. The Technical Board is not in a position to assign a documentation author to maintain new flavour process documentation, and in any case if we had that resource I think it would better assigned in other areas lacking documentation in Ubuntu since new flavours are rare. So I hope that I've found a reasonable compromise: the process I've documented should be general enough to survive most technical process changes, and will lead to a connection with a member of the Release Team who will be able to answer questions and help with any of the rest. However, that's just my opinion, and I don't intend to discourage anyone who wants to write documentation for this process, or any other! Certainly the Release Team should continue to document processes as they feel appropriate, and I also encourage flavours to help coordinate and contribute to that effort.
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