OLPC-Update + RPMs WAS:Re: OLPC XO Opera browser as Sugar activity

[Kim Quirk]

We separated out the activities so that we could push the testing and
localization of activities out to the country.  How many activities can they
test? As many as they have people and time for.

It is in the deployment guide (and starting to get good discussion from
sales/deployment people) that a country must take responsibility for
choosing, testing, and localizing activities and content. We will make the
combined OS+Activities image for them, but our testing is limited to
ensuring that the signed image loads and we'll do the equivalent of 10
minutes of testing (this is not exact, but meant to give you the idea that
we won't spend days or even hours testing each customized image -- ideally
this testing is automated so we can do 30 different country images in a day
or in parallel).  The country has to have done the testing to enusre proper
operation of the activities and the correct language, etc.. OLPC's testing
needs to be limited or there is no scalability.

In the same way, we have set a precedent with Uruguay, that if they country
wants to make changes to the code base that they need to send a developer to
1CC to learn how to work with our processes, our developers, our
repositories, etc. and to make sure their features and bug fixes get in
releases. And they have to do their own testing.

If they do all that, then we will sign their builds, do the same '10 minute'
test and be able to support them when they have to make more changes in the
future. We won't fix their code, but we will encourage them to contribute as
we do other developers.

Note: for the G1G1 program OLPC has to choose the activities, ensure that
the testing gets done (hopefully with community help), and take some
responsibility for the activities that we ship.

Kim

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 8:23 PM, Erik Garrison <erik at laptop.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 07:10:23PM -0400, C. Scott Ananian wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 6:58 PM, Martin Langhoff
> > <martin.langhoff at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 6:50 PM,  <david at lang.hm> wrote:
> > >> how many different deployment builds do you think are being supported
> at
> > >> this time? I think it's still in the single digits.
> > >
> > > I expect this to change quite drastically soon.
> >
> > Let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Someday we may be able to support
> > lots of different configurations.  Today, we will only be successful
> > if we can limit the number of configurations in the field to a
> > testable number (and then test them!).
> >
>
> In your opinion what is a 'testable number'?
>
> > That's the whole point of the core OS / activities split.  Do whatever
> > you like on the activities side, because that's your primary value-add
> > (you == countries).  We can also technically ensure that one bad
> > activity won't spoil the whole bunch.  We will in turn provide you
> > with a core OS which is as stable and functional as we know how.
>
> There is another primary value-add, which is a different operating
> system or window manager.  To enable this value-add we could be
> distributing a minimal image for each of the popular linuxes and then
> distributing packages to install sugar, activites, other window
> managers, etc.  Such packaging would be most useful to deployments
> engaged in customization.
>
> We already know that countries want to be able to run more traditional
> desktop environments.
>
> Erik
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