[ubuntu-studio-devel] Next cycle

[Ross Gammon]

And I forgot to say - it would be great to add suggestions to them and 
especially links to useful resources on the web, so anyone can pick one 
of the tasks up and "have a go!".


On 15/05/17 22:28, Ross Gammon wrote:
> OK - I have done the first draft of some blueprints for the Artful 
> 17.10 release based on Len's list. You can see them listed (with 
> links) under the "Current Development Release" section here:
>
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/Blueprints
>
> Alternatively, you can access them using the dependency tree on this 
> page:
> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntustudio/+spec/ubuntustudio-topic-a
>
> I had some troubles incorporating all of the feedback from eylul & 
> lukefromdc, and summarising Len's ideas. Therefore, I would appreciate 
> some review and tweaks before we fill in the Workitems part for each 
> of them according to 
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/ManagingBlueprints#Workitems
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ross
>
> On 22/04/17 12:03, Ross Gammon wrote:
>> Thanks for doing this Len.
>>
>> On 04/13/2017 05:49 PM, Len Ovens wrote:
>>> Aside from having a new -controls (I hope) there are a few things I
>>> would like to hear about.
>> I have re-targeted the last controls update that missed Zesty, to
>> Artful. If you spot a potential sponsor on IRC, then please point them
>> at the bug (I will be a bit busty this week).
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntustudio-controls/+bug/1678316 
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Auto mounting - we used to make sure there was no auto mounting of USB
>>> drives, cds or dvds. But since we have started borrowing xubuntu's
>>> desktop, that has come back in. IMO this is bad for audio use at least
>>> (anything auto is). However, I realize I am audio centric. How does
>>> this align with graphics/video use which are in general not real time
>>> or low latency tasks.
>>>
>>> Auto updating - same as above. But to add to it, I noticed that
>>> autoupdating installs new kernels in background. However, there seems
>>> to be no background old kernel clean up. I don't use efi myself, but I
>>> understand that efi uses a separate boot partition of minimal size and
>>> could become full with no warning... perhaps making updates or booting
>>> broken. I would guess this not just a Studio problem... though if it
>>> is then the solution must be hanging around already. Needs study in
>>> any case.
>>>
>>> whisker menu - I still hate it :) But if we are going to keep it (I
>>> always go back to the system menu on my systems) can we at least
>>> resize it so that the menu categories are all visible by default...
>>> and enable hover so that click on category is not needed. I understand
>>> that having the search window there is nice for some people... but I
>>> just don't seem to come up with valuable search terms ever... my brain
>>> and whoever sets seach data just don't match. (probably means I'm
>>> abnormal)
>>>
>>> Can we change the default theme to Moheli or similar? There are two
>>> things I like in a theme:
>>>      The window with focus stands out - menu bar is a different colour
>>>      The border needs to be wide enough to be easy to grab
>>>
>>> More than one workpace by default - I understand that I may work a bit
>>> different than others doing development on more than one project at a
>>> time. It is not unusual for me to have 30 or more windows open at one
>>> time. IDEs do try to make things so this is not needed... but my
>>> workflow is just that way. This is why being able to resize windows
>>> and see which is focused are important.
>>>
>>> I understand that xubuntu is aimed at mainstream either browsing or
>>> one other app fullscreen use and so the desktop we end up with
>>> reflects that. As content creators, how do the rest of us set up their
>>> desktops? Should changes be made? or am I really the odd one out?
>>>
>>> Also in the world of themes. Are there any high DPI or better variable
>>> DPI centric themes available? While I do not use a high DPI monitor
>>> (mine are only 1600X900), I would expect both graphics and video
>>> creators to use them... actually it would be very nice for mixbus-32c
>>> too. SO at least two themes one for low and one for high, but better
>>> one that can deal with making fonts visible at any dpi.
>>>
>>> Normally artwork changes for LTS releases (next year) but as things
>>> move slow here... maybe now is a good time to start thinking about a
>>> new backdrop. It would be nice if there could be one that is
>>> extensible where a generic version could be used on the right monitor
>>> in a dual monitor configuration. I am sure that I have not been plain
>>> here :)
>>>
>>> I am thinking of a left monitor BG that is complete in itself for
>>> single monitor users. Then a second BG that looks like an extension of
>>> the left but with no logo etc. It may even seem blank or just continue
>>> the right edge colours or something like that. Then build the ISO
>>> install for a dual monitor setup with those two BGs as default (I
>>> don't thnk this would be too hard). If started up in single monitor
>>> mode, the system will reconfigure using the left monitor's BG and look
>>> right in that configuration as well.
>>>
>>> -controls will make some changes beyond what it does now and I want it
>>> complete and well tested for 17.10 so that we have time to make
>>> changes in it and the rest of the system for 18.04LTS. One of those
>>> changes will be to upgrade the pulse-jack bridge. The main thing being
>>> to allow pulse to run at a higher latency than jack so that the bridge
>>> will take less cpu and things like skype will continue to run even
>>> with jackd at 16/2. Basically, I want jackd to look like a sound card
>>> to pulse. I would like it to show up in pulse's configuration tab for
>>> example so people can set it up as more than stereo if they want. But
>>> the main thing is that the pa-jack bridge should never cause jack
>>> xruns... pa xruns are ok :P  pa hides it's xruns already (but not
>>> their artifacts) so go with the flow. A PA replacement would be ever
>>> so nice, but we don't have a team of coders and 10 years to do that.
>>>
>>> My goal for -controls is to replace most of the aging qjackctl except
>>> the connections window (I may even be able to get -controls to open
>>> the qjackctl connections window) and to make it more like Cadence. I
>>> would use cadence if it was packaged and I totally agreed with the way
>>> it does things. (I am not saying cadence does things wrong... just
>>> that I can do better ;)  )
>> I will start turning these into blueprints over the next few days
>> (including the input from the subsequent emails in this thread). In
>> controversial areas I will phrase it something like "try ....". We can
>> always revert if people aren't happy. Although it will be easier to
>> revert if we work in a feature branch this time :-)
>>
>> For me, I really want to work on a package tracker so that we have a
>> place to look to see when our packages are out of date or buggy. I would
>> also like to do some sort of Bug Hugging days where we can encourage
>> more people to be able to triage bugs and take the first steps to
>> identifying fixes. Basic bug triaging I can do, but triaging audio-video
>> stuff is tricky, especially when it can depend on hardware and sensitive
>> settings. It would be great to spend a day here and there on one of our
>> priority packages, and as a team sort out all the bug reports so that
>> they are either confirmed or rejected, passed upstream where required,
>> and potential patches identified that someone might turn into a SRU
>> (Stable Release Update).
>>   Cheers,
>>
>> Ross
>>
>
>