suggest new mailing lists for OLPC

[Bill Bogstad]

On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 9:53 AM, Martin Langhoff <martin at laptop.org> wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 9:17 AM, Bill Bogstad <bogstad at pobox.com> wrote:
>> Responding to ds-backup issues first:
>
> Great summary -- should we move this to devel and/or server-devel?

The above was from what was an off-list discussion of compatibility
issues between released versions of OLPC software (XS 0.4 and as yet
undetermined pre-767 XO releases).  I'm going to use it to semi-rant
about something.

Can I suggest  instead a new mailing list for server SUPPORT be
created as opposed to DEVELOPMENT?  And what about doing XO support on
commmunity-support rather then devel? I think that both server-devel
and devel are used too often for things that they shouldn't be.  It's
not surprising that this happened, the developers needed a place to
talk and when people started using their stuff they had
questions/issues and tended to gravitate to the channels where the
experts hung out.  I think it's time, however, that OLPC grew out of
this phase.  There are now 100s of thousands of XO users and many of
them will be interacting with XS soon if they aren't already. They
shouldn't have to wade through announcements of the Nth joyride or
XS-0.5dev92, issues with OLPC's build system, or debxo  in order to
engage in discussion about issues with released software (for example
XS 0.4 and XO 767).  (BTW, what exactly does 'released' mean for OLPC
in terms of QA testing/documentation or continuing support?)

I'm NOT saying that such discussions shouldn't appear publicly, the
more open the better.  I'm saying that a little better organization of
the mailing list namespace/usage patterns would make it easier for
people who aren't part of the whirlwind that is OLPC development to
both get what they need and help out.  It would also make it easier to
keep track of whether issues were just in some one-of development
release that doesn't matter or need to be documented more formally
with fixes in a FAQ on the wiki.

As for specific  proposal(s):

1. Move all discussion of released XO images to community-support.
Encourage non-developers/testers
to subscribe to community-support rather then devel.

2. Create a server-support mailing list.  Similarly encourage IT
support personnel to subscribe here rather
then server-devel (unless they are actively tracking development
releases).  Move all discussions of released XS images here.

Bill Bogstad

P.S. I have no intention of dropping off of devel or server-devel, but
I would find it useful mentally to have things better separated.