[kde-community] RFC: Distribution outreach program

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

Hi Neofytos!

On Dienstag, 2. Februar 2016 23:40:44 CET tetris4 at openmailbox.org wrote:

> I would like to propose a middle ground solution hoping it will
> contribute to the discussion. It will imho serve everyone's interests;
> KDE, distributions and users.
> 
> The way I see it, the issue breaks down to 3 core areas as discussed so
> far:
> 
> 1. KDE recommended standards
> Recommendation: Provide a checklist of everything KDE considers
> important (configuration, dependencies, versions etc) as discussed in
> this thread.
> This way everyone can check what KDE proposes as an optimal environment
> for the software it provides to run on.

Yes, I think we won't get around doing that.
 
> 2. Distribution specific implementation
> Recommendation: Provide a place for distributions themselves to share
> their implementation.
> This could be a wiki table of some sort with a checklist and comments
> related to the items outlined in #1. This way distributions have the
> opportunity to explain in short their motives and demonstrate their
> reasoning for not providing something the expected way. This also helps
> users to have a more clear understanding of the goals and methods of
> each distribution that ships KDE software, and at the same time avoid
> any misunderstanding that could occur by people perceiving this as KDE
> pointing the finger to some specific implementation strategy or
> distribution.

That's a very interesting idea! It remains to be seen how many distributions 
would actually make use of this, but if many of them do, this could indeed be 
a very useful collaborative tool from which all sides could benefit!

> 3. Review
> Recommendation: From a distribution's perspective, I would expect
> distributions to be trusted to provide true information, so any
> reviewing should not be needed.
> However, if in the long term this proves to be necessary, it could be
> done in specified or random intervals. A script could be used as
> suggested, a KDE assigned person could handle this, or both. Some text
> of the type 'This page was last reviewed by KDE on X date' could show to
> users that the related information is valid and up to date.
> Badges could be assigned here and some visualization if KDE decides they
> help, as well as some grouping/sorting of the distros in relation to
> their appraisal.

I agree: We could first see if transparency already does the trick, and only 
apply a review process if it turns out that it doesn't.

> And of course, in cases that some information is considered invalid,
> make sure to have open channels of communication with distributions to
> avoid misunderstandings. =)

Absolutely! Communication is key here. I've used the term "Distribution 
outreach program" for my suggestion for a reason. It's not supposed to be a 
"blame distros for messing up program". It's supposed to foster closer 
collaboration between up- and downstream.