Direction of the Ubuntu system docs

[Jim Campbell]

I wanted to revisit this.

On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 2:07 AM, Matthew East <mdke at ubuntu.com> wrote:

> Hi Phil,
>
> On 19 December 2010 22:06, Phil Bull <philbull at gmail.com> wrote:
> > In light of this, I think it's time we discussed the direction of the
> > Ubuntu system docs. The package is becoming outdated - we've mostly been
> > in maintenance mode for the last few release cycles, and even that's
> > only due to the hard work and dedication of a couple of people. There
> > are a number of changes in Ubuntu and related projects that we're going
> > to have to adapt to and make some decisions about if we're to stay
> > relevant:
>
> I have to say that I can't really think of a good solution in order to
> make ubuntu-docs relevant again. The options seem to be:
>
> 1. continue with the ubuntu-docs package, but rewrite the documents so
> that they match Ubuntu's default desktop setup, with Unity.
> 2. seek to come closer to Gnome by shipping a modified gnome-user-docs
> package with documents added and amendments to the default documents
> to reflect maintained by us in Mallard.
> 3. work on documentation to be shipped directly in the unity packages.
>
> I agree with you on copyright assignment and am not prepared,
> certainly without better justification, to sign the contributor
> agreement. I've expressed my thoughts on it [1] and didn't get a
> satisfactory answer. However Mark has said that he will blog about
> this and maybe we will get some clarity from him in due course.
>
> [1]
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2010-January/029987.html
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2010-January/030004.html
>
> For me that rules out solution 3. I have to say that while solution 2
> has been the one which we've been looking towards over the past few
> cycles and it definitely would have been my preferred option before
> this cycle, Ubuntu's adoption of Unity seems to me to have thrown that
> into difficulty, because the work required to customise
> gnome-user-docs to reflect an entirely different desktop seems to me
> to be very substantial. The adoption of Unity seems to signify a move
> away from Gnome by Ubuntu, and that seems to clash with a move towards
> Gnome by the ubuntu-docs team. If that's right, then solution 1 is
> more or less the only option left that I can think of. I'd be very
> interested to hear your thoughts.
>
>
I would concur that option #1 seems like the most viable option at this
time.

With regards to being able to use some portions of the Gnome user help
(which would require review and appropriate modifications), I wouldn't see
that as very practical for this release.  The Gnome team is still in the
process of updating their docs for Gnome 3, and much work remains to be
done. W

Using Mallard would allow us to easily plug-in modified portions of Gnome
user help where appropriate, but there is no Mallard output to PDF, so
Mallard wouldn't be a good choice for the server guide.

I propose a meeting within the next week to decide between our options.
Would next Saturday or Sunday work?  If so, please note that times that
you're available to meet:

http://www.doodle.com/n9bqwm2c56nbqd8y

I'll also update the wiki with information about the meeting.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DocumentationTeam/MeetingAgenda

Jim
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