Project Timelord -- Initial consideration

[Jonathan Thomas]

On Wednesday 20, October 2009 11:04:09 PM Clay Weber wrote:
> On Tuesday 20 October 2009 04:21:09 pm Jonathan Thomas wrote:
> > Hello fellow Kubuntu developers,
> >
> > Kubuntu, as we know, is a fairly good KDE distribution. (Otherwise we
> > would not be here reading this mailing list) However, things are not
> > perfect. In fact, things could be much better.
> >
> > "But what is Project Timelord?", you may ask, "and how does it relate to
> > Kubuntu's problems?" Both are good questions. Project Timelord is the
> > brainchild of the Kubuntu developer legend Harald Sitter; the culmination
> >  of several weeks of brainstorming by a handful of Kubuntu developers,
> >  focused towards identifying problems Kubuntu currently faces and
> 
> solutions
> 
> >  for these problems.
> >
> > And now, we wish to bring Project Timelord to the attention of the
> > greater Kubuntu development community for input. You can find the
> > internal developer release announcement that outlines the purpose and
> > proposed solutions of Project Timelord at:
> >  http://docs.google.com/View?id=dfc7xjfj_18g8k5ztg4
> >
> > If it is decided that we would like to adopt Project Timelord as a goal
> > to work towards over the next few cycles, we can start towards
> > prioritizing the solutions and work towards forming a roadmap to
> > implementing these solutions. This way we can all stay in the know of
> > what is going on even if we are unable to attend UDS, and those attending
> > UDS will have a unified goal to work towards as they flesh out the
> > implementation details for Kubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx.
> >
> > The purpose of this email is to generate discussion to determine whether
> >  the Kubuntu developer community wishes to adopt this plan or not, as
> > well as to provide input on the brainstormed solutions. Until it is
> > decided, we would politely ask you to not announce the existence of the
> > project to the general public. We would like to hear your thoughts on the
> > initiative here, though. :)
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Jonathan "JontheEchidna" Thomas.
> 
> My thoughts and questions on this:
> 
> Developing on a mission statement, or project vision, should actually aid
>  in overcoming most of  the non-technical issues we face.

Agreed.

> How will upstream deal with our passing bugs up there? Sometimes I feel a
> little negativity towards us in bko.

Up until we release Karmic in a week or so, we will already have had our bug 
reports directed towards B.K.O. Most other distros have Dr. Konqi + report bug 
menu items reported at KDE as well, so pointing user bug reporting tools at 
KDE is quite normal. The situations when we have peeved KDE at B.K.O most 
always come from other mistakes we have made, including patches (addressed in 
Timelord w/ new patch policy + big patch review), translations (addressed in 
Timelord if implemented) and including prerelease versions of software in our 
final release without consulting them. (also addressed in Project Timelord). 

In my opinion, if we follow Project Timelord as a whole we should be totally 
fine in having bug reports going upstream. Of course, if there's anything 
we've missed in planning Project Timelord that would make that statement 
untrue, now would be the time to point things out. :)

> What about broken items such as wireless, bluetooth problems we have had
> in the past? These serious software issues also need some sort of
> mechanism to address missing functionality if and when this happens in the
> future. I think this single issue has gone a long way towards tarnishing
>  our image.

Bluetooth I see as somewhat not important. Perhaps we should offer some way 
for the user to install the GNOME bluetooth client after installation. The 
problem we are currently facing is that kdebluetooth was unmaintained for just 
about the entire Karmic cycle. A new maintainer has stepped up and 
kdebluetooth doesn't suck quite so much, but there is still a long way to go. 
This is probably something we want to monitor closely for sure.

> 
> A Bug Day is a fantastic idea. One area where I personally could do more
> work is helping with the bugs in launchpad.
> 
> I look forward to seeing where this leads!

Me too. :)

> clay
>