Editing the quick guide and the broader perspective of Amarok

[Willem Ferguson]

Dear Amarockers,

I did address my initial response to the list (amarok-promo at kde.org). 
Since I received a private reply, I initially responded privately.
Since some of the broader issues are at stake, I now return to the list.

Please read through the discussion below, to which I have replied at the bottom.

On 24/08/2010 01:05, Myriam Schweingruber wrote:
> Hi Willem,
>
> shouldn't this have gone to the list?
>
> On Mon, Aug 23, 2010 at 11:33, Willem Ferguson
> <willemferguson at zoology.up.ac.za>  wrote:
>    
>> Hi Myriam,
>>
>> There needs to be a section dealing with launching Amarok outside of KDE, at
>> the very least incorporating Gnome and Ubuntu. Valorie asked me to insert
>> some text about Ubuntu.
>> I agree about Gnome, but why about Ubuntu? There are a lot of other
>> distributions out there using Gnome, so please let's be specific for a
>> Desktop environment, but not a distribution.
>>
>> It is just two lines and a screenshot, not even sure if the screenshot
>> is really need, though. But again, please coordinate on the mailing
>> list and come by in #rokymotion on IRC. If we want to collaborate as a
>> team we should also use the team communication means.
>>
>> I think a guide has to be written as short as possible and to the
>> point, adding a whole section for a launch on Gnome is a bit much
>> IMHO.
>>      
>> The Amarok world is (hopefully) much larger than KDE, Gnome or any other
>> specific user interface. What we are looking at is a viable opensource
>> alternative for iTunes. Rythmbox is unlikely to achieve this. I hope the
>> vision is to ultimately see Amarok distributed as the default music player
>> with Ubuntu, Redhat and any other major release of Linux, independent of the
>> specific desktop that is being used.
>>      
> I know, but as far as the use on Windows and Mac OS are concerned, we
> are still quite far away from a User Guide for first time users,
> AFAICT you need to be rather proficient to install Amarok on those
> systems. As long as that is not easy to install we will not have any
> first time users on these systems, I think it not very useful to add
> any of these steps to the QSG for the time being.Let's be realistic in
> our goals :)
>
> I have already added a menu item to the Manual for Amarok on other
> Desktops and Operating Systems, I think that is where additional
> information belongs rather than the Quick Start Guide, as long as
> there are no easy to use installers available.
>
>
> Regards, Myriam.
>    
Two issues:
1) The Quick Guide.
If you wish to promote the acceptance of Amarok you need to make it 
accessible to first-time users.
To write a section for KDE users only, containing no information that is 
useful on Gnome or other UIs defeats the object. It does not help 
first-time users on those UIs. The two most common releases for Linux 
are probably Ubuntu and Fedora. On both of these Gnome is a 
commonly-installed UI. Not providing information for Gnome or other 
platforms amount to reticence on your part to promote Amarok on those 
platforms. Why?

I propose including a section similar to the one for KDE, focusing on 
Gnome. But if you want to focus on Gnome as well, you need to use an OS 
that implements Gnome. Why not Ubuntu, since it is the largest single 
release of Linux, therefore with the largest possible source of users 
for Amarok. The Quick Guide is much more important than the full manual 
in this respect since first-time users will be looking at the Quick 
Start Guide before they look at the full manual. Help Amarok by 
facilitating users on other UIs to access Amarok by including suitable 
information in the Quick Start Guide. Valorie requested that I do it and 
I offered to do it. Why should this not be able to happen?

2) The broader "market" for Amarok.
I have indicated most of my sentiments in the discussion at the top, so 
I am not going to repeat these. At my institute we run several versions 
of Linux, including KDE and Gnome (I personally use Gnome). At our 
university we must be running more than a dozen distributions of the 
Linux OS (Debian, Redhat, Gentoo, Mint, CentOS... etc etc). Yet there is 
no parochialism amongst all of our users. We have a cooperating 
community. What's the issue about Ubuntu that I detect in the discussion 
at the top? Fact is, if Amarok can be included as the standard music 
player with Ubuntu, Fedora, etc, the user base will increase 
tremendously. Is this not what we would all like? Is there a plan of 
action for Amarok? Seeing that Ubuntu is the largest release, I would 
say working towards including Amarok as the standard music app with 
Ubuntu should be a number one goal towards broadening the user base. 
After that probably Fedora. etc etc.  If Amarok is seen as an app for 
only the erudite KDE users who already know how to install and use it 
anyway, Amarok will not be sustainable in the long term. If I use any 
software that requires investment of time in creating a resource base 
(e.g. music collection, photographic archival software) I would like to 
have the conviction that this software will still exist and be 
maintained 15 years from now. Currently I do not think there is a 
serious open source competitor for Amarok. It offers amazing value for 
the open source community. Stategise now in order to maximize the user 
base in order to maximize the sustainability and development potential 
for Amarok! That is the basic rationale with which I became involved and 
wrote the text for the Quick Start Guide. Therefore the emphasis on 
non-KDE UIs (principally Gnome) in the start of the Quick Start Guide.

I agree that the Mac and Windows versions are some way off in terms of 
the average novice user (and a separate issue from the one about 
accessibility on the Linux platform), but we need to work towards it. It 
depends on what one's motivation is with involvement in open source 
software. If one believes that open source software gives freedom of 
use, the opportunity to share intellectual property and to create an 
environment where profit is not always the first driving force, then the 
development of Amarok for Win and Mac has a strong cause.

Kind regards,
Willem Ferguson