[arch-dev-public] Goals / Mission Statement

[Dan McGee]

On 5/29/07, Aaron Griffin <aaronmgriffin at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey all,
> This has been brought up a few times by Andy, but it seems it's fallen
> on deaf ears recently.  I want to make sure we get this done this
> time.
>
> One of our recent "growing pains" we've had is that there is a certain
> sense of direction that is unclear.  We don't have a clear set of
> "goals" defined.
>
> So lets do that now.  Our dev wiki (for the benefit of the subscribed
> users) contains some ideas which are rather raw.  I will strip the
> names to make things anonymous.
>
> Below you will find the points listed in our dev wiki.  What I want to
> do, right now, is flesh this out.  We need to define ourselves a clear
> set of goals.  It's important to note that a goal is not "make sure
> packages go to testing" - that's an implementation detail.  A goal is
> something more ethereal, such as "provide stable, up-to-date
> software".
>
> I would like all of you to read through these (feel free to add your
> own) and try and list 3-5 of these that you feel are important.  On
> Thursday, I'd like to compile a list of the responses, and we can go
> through and cherrypick our goals from this subset from everyone - yes
> this includes those of you without write access to this list.  Email
> me directly, if you want to remain anonymous.
>
> Please look these over, and reply with anything you feel is important.
>
> Thanks,
> Aaron
>
> ----------------- Dev Wiki Entries -----------------
>
> * Provide the latest software as is practical, while aiming to achieve
> a reasonable level of stability
>
> * Not be dependent on any graphical interface for any system function
>
> * Remain a lightweight, general purpose distribution that is simple in
> it's implementation
>
> * Continue to be a strongly community oriented distribution
>
> * Provide a good set of reliable and modern Linux technologies for
> desktop, server and portable PCs
>
> * Be equally suitable for home, educational, small business and corporate use
>
> * Provide a solid base for creating custom Arch (ISOs and repos)
> variants for users specific purposes
>
> * Remain a "install once, run forever" distribution
>
> * Provide good i18n and l10n support
>
> * Simple design. Reasoning: "Debugging is twice as hard as writing the
> code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly
> as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it." –
> Brian W. Kernighan
>
> * Vanilla. As few patches as is reasonable to make things play
> together in the ways necessary, and then primarily as stopgap
> solutions until things get fixed upstream. This creates predictability
> and allows smart people with general GNU/Linux knowledge to pick up
> Arch instantly. It also keeps us from maintaining more and more custom
> patches over time.
>
> * Easy packaging with pacman. The SINGLE thing that will probably keep
> me from ever leaving Arch is how simple it is to create packages with
> Pacman. The thought of ever having to write another RPM spec file or
> something else as obtuse or complicated or ill-conceived as that makes
> me want to toss my lunch. When I find new software on the Web to help
> me do my work, I can have it packaged and integrated into my bag of
> tricks usually in less than an hour. As a result of this simplicity,
> we have a Community who understands what's going on and can be
> productively helpful and supportive of each other.
>
> * Binary distribution. Unlike Gentoo, we can download and install
> Firefox on a reasonably fast machine with a reasonably fast link in
> less than a minute. Also, we test and certify binaries, so quirks of
> people's machines don't bugger up their compile processes. The result
> is that after a pacman -Syu, on any machine, most things just work.
>
> * This might not be exactly where or what we are, but someone once
> called Arch a "meta distribution". That is, it gives you tools and a
> very nice base with which you can do whatever you want. I think this
> also coincides with 2 of the "goals" I would like to see - that is,
> (a) like Andy said, we provide a very nice base system and not much
> more, and (b) "Slackware with pacman" - we get likened to Slackware
> enough, and I think the simplicity that slackware strives for is ideal
> for us as well.
>
> * I say focus more on the core packages.. the underlying fundamentals.
> Push the addons higher into the stack. I liken Arch to one of the
> BSD's, oddly enough. The BSD team focuses on handling the core. They
> deal with things that come about when the system goes from poweroff to
> running a base network os. Then ports managers handle the packages
> that lay on top of this core system.
> Just a thought.
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>

Here is my ideal set of goals, trying to keep them short and sweet as
most of them have been elaborated on already.

* Be up to date but never broken; ensure we don't leave a subset of
users in the dust due to a package upgrade that wasn't quite ready for
primetime. A new release of a package should be no less stable than
the one before it if we can prevent it. In the same light, ensure that
the core components (which keep us lightweight) are always functional.
This ties into the next goal.

* Simple and lightweight. The install should not put a bunch of
packages on my machine I will never use, and never automate things to
the point where it does things the user does not want to do. WRT
package management, ensure pacman continues to be the easiest package
manager out there all the way through from build to install.

* Keep the community involved. I am at my 1 year mark of using Arch,
and I've never looked back. I've been able to become a dev in that
short time by making slow steps- adding some AUR packages, helping on
the forums, filing bug reports, etc. Then I started contributing to
pacman and was rewarded for my efforts. We need to keep community
members wanting to help if we want to keep up with our own duties. We
should also never hold anyone back (whether dev, TU, or user) from
helping out if they have the initiative.

Remarkably similar to Aaron's goals, ha. Great minds think alike. :)

-Dan

P.S. Reading Jason's goals, I think many of those are good foundations
for what I've stated above (binary, vanilla, etc.).