[PureOS] Let's stablize PureoS Green

[François Téchené]

On 19/03/2019 20:50, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> 
> Ok, so "our users" is one target, not several.
> 
> Not "enterprise customers" needing particularly stable system and 
> "existing users" expecting a constant flow of updates from Debian 
> testing.
> 
> All users are in same boat, and the boat goes in the direction that the 
> majority need to go.
> 
> Makes good sense.
>
Exactly, I think that in term of expectation, both enterprise and
everyday customers will expect a system that is stable, easily usable
and feature full.

Stability and usability are stronger in that expectation so we shouldn't
target users looking for cutting edge features that are breaking
stability and usability on the default experience.

So in term of priority regarding the customers experience, we have the
following :

  1 - Stability
  2 - Usability
  3 - Features


The fact of improving GNOME is directly related to usability in the sens
that we want to create a consistent (convergent) experience across the
different Librem devices along with a tight integration with the Librem
services.


> What we can do now, with our current manpower and infrastructure, is 
> follow Debian closely - which means a general feature update of our 
> system not every 6-12 months, but either every day or every 2-4 years.
> 
> We can develop different/smarter infrastructure and later when that is 
> done we can choose a 3rd path similar to Ubuntu, of a 6-12 month release 
> cycle meaning that we deviate further from Debian at times.  Later, not 
> now, with our current infrastructure.  If we want such 3rd path.
> 
> And/or we can hire more people to help maintain PureOS, and later when 
> they are settled in and efficient with our infrastructure, we can 
> deviate further from Debian even before we have different/smarter 
> infrastructure in place, by pouring more man hours into the things now 
> covered mostly by Debian - including security tracking and regression 
> testing and bootstrapping new packages and translating and and and...
> If we want to deviate more from Debian.
> 
> For now we can choose between 2 Debian tracks: Stable or Testing.
> 
> 

What we need, in my opinion, is a stable core OS where we control the
release cycles of the projects we develop and contribute to (currently
GNOME)

It may not be doable with the current man power but I imagine the
following workflow :

  - PureOS "red" matching Debian Experimental (or Sid?) would let the
devs work on new GNOME features.

  - PureOS "orange" matching Debian Stable with an exception for the
GNOME packages being updated from PureOS "red" every official GNOME
releases (starting from RC releases), would let the design team and
other testers test the latest GNOME in the real (stable) world.

 - PureOS "green" being a snapshot of PureOS "orange" every time PureOS
"orange" is defined as stable would be the official PureOS release for
the people.

This is just a proposal that may not reflect the reality of technical
issues but it is mainly to illustrate the fact that we keep control of
the testing and stability of what we develop.


>> I think this is a critical time for us in term of user experience so 
>> we must not rush in the decisions and make sure we find a good 
>> compromise.
> 
> Reason it is kinda urgent to reflect on this now is that _if_ we decide 
> to hit the break and slow down to tracking Debian stable, then we cannot 
> take that decision at arbitrary points during the Debian development 
> cycle: We need to decide before Debian releases the next stable release, 
> likely within few months from now, or continue fast-paced tracking 
> Debian testing until the next window 2-4 years from now.
> 

OK, I understand Jonas. It is the right time to discuss that issue and I
am sure we will find a good solution for the short and longer term!

Cheers,

François

-- 
https://puri.sm

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