Re: the short road from rc1 to rc2 to lenny
[Holger Levsen]
> If the triviality is in doubt, its a new feature.
Well, then I disagree with your proposal. I believe we should fix as
much as possible before release, and that all the fixes currently
commited and some more should be included in the release. All of them
are fixes needed to increase our chances to compete on equal ground
with the Windows and Ubuntu systems shools will consider to use
instead of Debian Edu/Skolelinux. We need to get as many hardware
models working out of the box, and at least the same models that used
with the Etch version, for schools to accept to install the Lenny
based version. Yesterday, Viggo in Narvik discovered that a HP
Proliant DL385 G6 failed to boot, with a "illegal opcodes" message.
This worked out of the box with Ubuntu, and these issues need to be
fixed with our Lenny version for schools to be able to use it.
> I got scared when I saw your 2nd commit on this new feature: "Make
> script more robust" - it's totally new code, widely untested and
> definitly not robust.
The code is trivial, and as far as I can tell obviously correct. If
you have issues with the code, please bring them up on the table. I
reordered some statements to make sure the script do not try to create
diverts if /etc/ is write protected or the / partition is full.
> I and many other people want the release to be out (since
> months). Setting a better homepage (which will be changed by most if
> not all people anyway) is nothing we need *now*.
I am aware of the wish to release, but I also believe we need to
release something that is working correctly and is useful for schools.
The fixes I have implemented the last few months have lingered for a
long time without anyone else noticing them or trying to fix them. We
could not release months ago, because not enough people were working
on making the distribution releasable.
> > I believe the announcement and PR part need more work, as we really
> > should put some effort in writing press releases, talk to journalists,
> > prepare videos documenting new feature, update the documentation to
> > explain how to use the new features etc.
>
> Yes. Introducing yet more changes will also distract us from this work.
I do not believe this is the case. PR work do not (and probably
should not) be done by the same people doing the technical work.
> We had 12 months to add new features, there is a point in time when
> this has to be stopped so we can concentrate 100% on getting the
> thing out.
>
> I think this time has definitly come.
And I believe we are close but not yet there. Rushing things will
just harm us in the long run. A lot of people believe the Skolelinux
project is dead, and will give us _one_ chance to prove our worth with
the Lenny version. If it fail to install or work properly, they will
leave us behind and move to Edubuntu or some non-free distribution. I
do not want that to happen.
Happy hacking,
--
Petter Reinholdtsen
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