Welcome everybody! - What can we do for you?

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

Hi everyone,
I'm happy that KDE's Distribution Outreach Program was officially launched today 
and that we have already 21 subscribers on this list.
This is a great start!

Those who might not know me yet: My main role in KDE is that of a usability 
consultant and interaction designer. Most of what I do is giving feedback on 
human-computer interaction aspects of patches, discussing ideas with 
developers and doing user interface mockups.
Since the way a community communicates with the public is also part of our 
users' experience, I also get involved in that area.

This also means I'm not good at technical things, but thankfully, Martin, 
Bhushan, Ivan and Neophytos (who is from "the distribution camp" himself) have 
stepped up to help me, and Valorie is throwing her experience in 
(distribution-)community and documentation work (among other things) into the 
mix.

Now let's get down to business: First, I'd like to hear from distributions how 
KDE can make your life easier. Not detailed stuff about specific packages 
(that's what our kde-packagers list is for), nor detailed wishes regarding our 
software features (that's what bugs.kde.org is for) but more general things.

What I'm interested in are things along the lines of
- Do you feel well enough informed about which packages from KDE are needed 
for a decent Plasma experience?
- Do we communicate clearly enough under which circumstances (kernel, drivers, 
libraries, configuration, paths, whatever) our software works best?
- Do available feedback channels work well enough in case of questions or 
problems with distributing our software?
- Do you find customization of our software for a distribution-unique user 
experience easy enough?
- Do we offer enough branding opportunities?

These are just random examples, of course. We're interested in any way you 
feel our cooperation with you could be improved. 

I think it would be great if those who present their ideas could quickly 
introduce themselves, telling us which role they have in which distribution, 
so we all know where you're coming from.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say!

Cheers,
Thomas