I "like" Mandriva's attitude (Fwd: Re: well-known user folders, a proposal)

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On February 23, 2007, Guillaume Laurent wrote:
> On Friday 23 February 2007 02:41, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > On February 22, 2007, Guillaume Laurent wrote:
> > > This is free software, so no
> >
> > that is an excuse of a reason. it's not like all non-free software houses
> > are great in this regard, and a free software group can be good at it
> > too.
>
> Free or non-free isn't the problem,

you were the one who said "this is free software, so...". i didn't make it a 
free or non-free issue, you did. i figured i'd address that.

> it amounts to how easy it is to get the info you need. Call it
> user-friendliness at the documentation level :-). 
> That's a pretty tough problem and I won't claim to have all the solutions
> here. Trolltech is a very good example to follow, though.

Trolltech also has an infinitely simpler job: support one library set to one 
type of audience. in this example, Mandriva aren't even using the Qt file 
dialog; so tell me, how would you go about fixing the Qt dialog in a similar 
fashion given Trolltech's good example?

> > what would make it less complicated for you?
>
> This guide
> http://docs.kde.org/stable/en/kdebase/userguide/kde-for-administrators.html
> (which you've just said you didn't know about - it's fair to expect the
> mandriva grunt working on KDE integration won't either) is a very good
> start. It just needs to be fleshed out and published more prominently. A
> doc.kde.org site with a mainpage being a quick roadmap to user/admin/dev
> docs would be great. Then advertise it as a single entry-point for all KDE
> help.

and Mandriva would actually use that? this is a serious question. i'm looking 
for some hint of commitment because if we put energy into that kind of 
solution and Mandriva (and others) continue to ignore ways of working with 
upstream then we (upstream) have just wasted our energy, which is constantly 
in short supply. it would screw us and it would screw you as a downstream 
that relies on us using our time wisely to improve the software you are 
trying to monetize.

now, what makes me very skeptical about your statement above is that it lacks 
anything to do with Mandriva. it's just more "give me, give me" with no 
realistic "and this is how Mandriva fits into the picture". e.g.:

how can we best let Mandriva know about the locations of this information?
how can we know that Mandriva is or is not finding what they need?
how can we know what Mandriva is looking for in the first place?
how will Mandriva provide feedback and improvement to the documentation?

we (Mandriva and KDE) have a non-formalized, but still very real, working 
partnership here. it would be great to start treating it more like one. if 
you aren't the one who can answer these questions (it may be more of a 
management issue?) please feel free to pass this on to someone who can.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

Full time KDE developer sponsored by Trolltech (http://www.trolltech.com)
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