Challenges for industrial-strength UNIX/Linux desktop
– Internationalization (pango, unicode, fonts and translation)
– Usability (simplification, consistency)
– Accessability (hook, API and tools)
– Manageability (centralized defaults)
– Reliability
– Internationalization (pango, unicode, fonts and translation)
– Usability (simplification, consistency)
– Accessability (hook, API and tools)
– Manageability (centralized defaults)
– Reliability
Minutes of the GNOME Advisory Board Meeting 3 April 2002 ======================================================== Presents: --------- Mandrakesoft Yu Yu Frederic Crozat HP Don Wierbilis Jeff Stevenson Red Flag Zhao "Chris" Xiao Liang Compaq Jim Gettys Keith Packard (XFree86) Ximian Nat Miguel Red Hat Havoc (chairing) Daniel (minutes) Jonathan (from 12:00) Tim Ney James George Telsa Jody (Ximian) Federico (Ximian) Presentation of Gnome: Havoc 9:30 ---------------------- Challenges for industrial-strength UNIX/Linux desktop - Internationalization (pango, unicode, fonts and translation) - Usability (simplification, consistency) - Accessability (hook, API and tools) - Manageability (centralized defaults) - Reliability Area where help would be appreciated: - web site and system administration - employing more core developers - usability testing - fonts - printing issues - developer meetings Getting more process in place (bug tracking, test suites, releases) Getting close to release GNOME2 HP-UX Desktop Requirements: Don Wierbilis 9:50 --------------------------- Usages: - Graphic desktop - Custom desktop - Server desktop The technical staff is starting to be able to work from a linux/Unix workstation and integrate with the corporate environment Desktop requirements: - stable and visible roadmap - reliable - extensive localization - support - developer toolkit - accessibility CDE and Motif migration and basic compatibility like cut and paste are needed for deployment with legacy apps. Mandrakesoft user base : Frederic Crozat 11:00 ------------------------ Pool: main strength - ease of use 47% - performances 22% - price 15% Gnome vs. KDE: - Licence differences - Gnome lacks coherency Ximian and GNOME: Nat 11:30 ----------------- Open-source based workgroup solution for corporation Currently user base is engineer driven and mostly decentralized The trend is to move toward more corporate and centalized deployment the main driver toward adoption is the price Key areas: - usability - interoperability - stable platform for ISV - accessibility - performances We know where the big issues are, the main problem is to get the work down, it gets down to a resource problem. Round around the table gathering points of discussions: ------------------------------------------------------- - Tactical work - Legal: + copyright assignment + GPL & licence policy + Trademark usage rules + Written participation agreements + Patent policy - Membership structure - FSF relationship - Software part of GNOME requirements - Relation to system & scope of GNOME - Library development process - Roadmap requests - Deployment - Interproject cooperation - GUADEC4 Tactical work: -------------- Getting sysadmin resources possibly on staff would help But only administrative staff. Trying to get extra funding: - raising fees ? what would be the selling point ? We need to make a business presentation with the list - getting individual contributions: paypal and sponsoring - making sure we get Tax Exemption Status - trying to chase Government grants and Non Profit organization and Universities, promoting our Public Benefit mission - developing countries - tutorial at GUADEC and other venues - raise money from the Trademark and make sure we can define what is required to put the logo on a product ACTION: Tim will work on organizing the funding search "The penguins need to be fed too" Tie schedule and actual benefits and - execution/process problems - web site - communication policy and schedule - in person meetings - sysadmin - money - marketing Foundation: ----------- Lunch: 1:30 ------ Afternoon discussion: 3:30 --------------------- Copyright assignment: - having a Copyright and assignment policy would make sense - most of our developer base does not understand the semantic and effects of Copyright ownership and assignment - assignment cannot be done without doing the proper paper work and that would be a large task - having Copyright actually dispersed can protect us in the long term A sub-committee of board will discuss the issue with the attorney ACTION: Jim will make sure this work is started at the Board level. Asia: - Gnome needs to stabilize - getting local developers to learn about GNOME - software sold in China need to follow governement standards - freely redistributable chinese/asian fonts are not available Fonts: - out of the box having nice fonts for most languages - metric compatibility with Windows is not a top priority Roadmap requirement: - user preference API is now okay for client side, but the server / back-end is not okay yet, this is on the roadmap for post 2.0, but should not affect the ABI - API / ABI , 2.0.1 should have no API change, 2.2 may have API extensions. There is a clear request that a 2.0 application would run unmdified on 3.0 . Office: - help the Open Office and or integrate with them: - not easy, we can build bridges at the component level - trying to reuse the same packaging format - we need a Gnome Office with unified release and a roadmap - clear release team Gnome Platform/Gnome Desktop/Gnome Office Ajourned 5:00