Vancouver hierarchy - proposed terminology

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

The debate is being hard to follow, with tiers, classes of citizenship
and several other distinctions being tossed about, and not always
clearly mapped to a particular one of the two divisions in the plan.
I propose the following terminology (also paraphrasing the outline of
the plan according to my understanding):

1. A MEMBER architecture is one that the upload queue scripts knows
   what to do about. The criteria for being a MEMBER are
     - must provide basic Unix functionality
     - must have a working buildd
     - must have X users, Y of which must be DDs
     - (et cetera)

2. MEMBER architectures are divided into IRREGULAR and REGULAR
   architectures. REGULAR architectures make stable releases in
   lock-step; thus problems on one REGULAR architecture can block
   the release of all others. The release process for REGULAR
   architectures is controlled by the DPL-appointed release team,
   currently using the "testing" suite as a common staging area.
   The criteria for being REGULAR are
     - must be a MEMBER
     - must have a working installer
     - must have redundant buildd capacity
     - (et cetera)

   An IRREGULAR architecture either does not make releases, or release
   according to a schedule that does not match the REGULAR one. (One
   possible instance of this is "we'll try to parallel the REGULAR
   release, but they are not going to wait for us if we blow a tyre
   along the way"). The porters must provide their own release
   management and staging area (management).

3. Certain REGULAR architectures are sufficiently in demand that they
   will distributed through the entire official mirror network. They
   are WIDESPREAD architectures.
   The criteria for being WIDESPREAD is that the ftpmasters judge that
   there is sufficient demand for download bandwidth to justify
   mirroring (either by the 10% rule or something else).
   
   Architectures that are not found on primary mirrors are
   NARROWSPREAD ones. They have aptable repositories somewhere in
   *.debian.org and are mirrored only by freak idealists with too much
   disk space for their own good. They can be either REGULAR or
   IRREGULAR.

   Neither users nor developers will notice much difference between
   WIDESPREAD and REGULAR NARROWSPREAD architectures once they have
   pointed their sources.list to an appropriate server.



(Or, as alternative alternative terminology:
  Widespread           -> "utlanning"
  Narrowspread regular -> "framling"
  Irregular            -> "ramen"
  Other unix-like OSes -> "varelse"
  Microsoft Windows    -> "djur"
)

-- 
Henning Makholm             "Jeg forstår mig på at anvende sådanne midler på
                           folks legemer, at jeg kan varme eller afkøle dem,
                    som jeg vil, og få dem til at kaste op, hvis det er det,
                  jeg vil, eller give afføring og meget andet af den slags."