[gNewSense-users] a little review or the stuff currently on the list

[Paul O'Malley]

Hi All,

I'd like to point out a few things.
First a comment.

We are not the FSF, we are not paid by them, we are hosted by them the
same way they host other Free Software projects. Due to the size of the
project the FSF have gone to great lengths in terms of help. For this I
thank them.

For this review I am giving my opinions on (A)packaging, what (B) would
really help right now, (C) upstream and their choices and (D)tomorrow.

(A) What about Packaging?
If you can, and you want something that is currently outside of
gNewSense at this time do the following steps.

1) You package it.
2) You propose how you will be manage it from a security and bug fix
perspective.

The impact of the above being done.
It should be the creation of the "community repo". For us to badge it as
community it MUST be free software.
If it fails an FSF Free software test then really don't talk to us about
it, I really am not interested.

Where should this lead?
Growing the community and the ability of people to participate.
If you have the interest you make it happen.

(B) What Would Help gNewSense Right Now?

If you had the skills to make our scripts work with any of the upstream
other Window Managers, 64bit or the server then please document what
steps you took.
We would like to here from people who did this.
If you got it to work doing what we suggested then maybe if it was 98%
of the way there you could ping the list and get back a good answer on
getting to 100%.
If it is a straight conversion of upstream then you have the material
that will help us progress.

Please DO NOT say this is a great idea and someone should do it. If you
have the interest please do it.

(C) Upstream doing a "free version"

Neither Mark Shuttleworth nor Canonical asked me about a "more free
version" they want to produce. Personally I would welcome it. I would
rather a fully free one, I understand why Mark does not go there.
Please note a side benefit of such action is that perhaps more people
would become aware of freedom issues as Mark has a larger gang of
listeners than we do.

(D) Tomorrow is just today, yesterday. (I think that is fair use ;P)
Happy installing.

Have a look at the item on http://www.badvista.org/blog where it asks
you to vote on the dell site, when you vote maybe you would like to put
a comment on badvista.org.



Regards,

Paul