[oneiric] Where should we keep the serverguide?

[Matthew East]

Hi,

I would like to raise this issue for discussion.

Up to and including Natty the serverguide document has been kept in
the ubuntu-docs branch. However since Maverick there is no serverguide
package and the serverguide is not included at all in the
distribution. It seems to me that it might be sensible to take
serverguide out of the ubuntu-docs branch and keep the ubuntu-docs
branch for documents which are being used in the build of the
ubuntu-docs package and which are going into the distribution.

Pros:

* Bugs can be kept separately in a "serverguide" upstream project:
  - users would not have to file bugs on a source package in a
distribution that in reality does not ship the document
  - those wishing to contribute to the serverguide would be able to
find bugs more easily and work on them.
* It will be easier for contributors (e.g. contributors to the Ubuntu
Server project) to get and work on the code without also getting
desktop help.
* The serverguide project would still be part of the ubuntu-doc
umbrella project and the principal code can be managed by the
~ubuntu-core-doc team.
* No need to confuse contributors by having two different document
formats (Mallard, Docbook) and two different build systems
(gnome-user-docs and our manual scripts) in the ubuntu-docs branch.

Cons:

* Possible divergence away from the ubuntu-docs core work?

I think that gradually we will have to get used to finding
documentation in various different places (ubuntu-docs, application
documents, upstream documents) and the aim of keeping everything in
one place (which I have always been a strong supporter of) is probably
no longer an essential goal.

I'd be interested to hear what people think about this idea.

-- 
Matthew East
http://www.mdke.org
gnupg pub 1024D/0E6B06FF