[arch-dev-public] Archlinux [current] status

[Tobias Kieslich]

Hi,


	a couple of thoughts on this one.
Yes, we have some issues at the moment. And part of it is IMHO that some
people have too much workload and hence don't get enough fun out of the
work for ArchLinux.
There are a couple of issues to think about:
1. We have many packages in current and extra and we have a whole bunch
of them we just have around for legacy reasons, because at one point
they were needed and hardly used at all anymore. We don't get any
feedback on them until we threaten users here and there to toss them
from the repos and they start to wine. Let's move them out to
unsupported. We should get rid of them.

2. Developers should cut back on individual package load and really
support only what we want to maintain and pass on other packages to
other and new devs.

3. More developers will raise issues, when it comes to releasing because
we have to syncronise the efforts. But we will need people, that pickup
some loose ends.

4. Arch64 is a 2 man show, Andy and ise. There should be some more
support for them. I really think we should add some people here. ISE,
write a mail to Jason to get access to current. Andy, Ise, how many
people do you want and do you have suggestions?

5. Pacbuild. Yes it will take a good bunch of workload from package
maintainance. But until then we will have to create some time and space
to get it rolling at all. Most Devs are loaded with maintainance.

6. Repository restructuring. This is very important, as it sets somehow
priorities and defines the releases. It should happen relatively soon.


I know this is just listing the issues. But I think it puts Tpowas rant
into some context. I have no definites solution to it atm, but my best
guess is that we will have to come up with a list of things and some
time frames. And we should have a developer meeting specific to the
issue. This is not meant to undermine the efforts in creating goals etc
for Archlinux but we have to come up with some changes soon as more
developers get a bit frustrated. My suggestion is that:

1. Go through the package list and toss lingering stuff (aka move to
   usupported). Everyone goes through its own packages and after a while
   we also dump the orphans. Some Devs might wanna get rid of Packages
   they don't use anymore (eg. I'd love to disown mono*, some gnome
   stuff some packages I don't use at all). By then evryone should make
   sure s/he has a sane workload. I hope this will also take some load
   from the Arch64 guys.

2. Restructure the repositories

3. Get pacbuild rolling

I don't wanna strip Arch down to nothing, but I wanna make sure paeople
have fun working at it.

	-T