Agenda: Imaging Tools

[Sam Hartman <hartmans@debian.org>]

A couple of months ago I said I'd like to discuss what tools we're using
for images.

People suggested that if we're going to do that we needed to have some
on-list discussion first.

I think we've had a fair bit of on-list discussion including discussion
of requirements as well as discussion of specific tools.

Therefore I think we're in a good position to discuss image creation
tools.

I think having some initial discussions about what we want in a stable
image *first* and discussing some of how we' want to interact with
custom images will be useful before any discussion of image tools.  It's
possible that the stable image discussion will get to a point where
interrupting to discuss image creation tools will help it move faster;
it's possible that entire discussion can happen first.  It depends on
requirements people have and on how uniform we want images to be between
providers.

I'd be happy to facilitate such a discussion.
I do have strong ideas about requirements and usability, but have never
been part of the team working on any tool, although I have used several
and worked around bugs in the tools I've used.
I've also been working on image creation in Debian and other distributed
environments since 1992, so I've seen a lot of the tradeoffs.
If there's someone better to facilitate the discussion--perhaps someone
with fewer ideas about requirements--then I'd be happy to contribute.
It's very important to me that we make progress on this topic and I'm
happy to do what it takes to make that possible.

--Sam