[Fedora-marketing-list] Next-release plans on the frontpage

[Marc Wiriadisastra]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Rahul" <sundaram at fedoraproject.org>
To: <dimitris at glezos.com>; "Discussions on expanding the Fedora user base" 
<fedora-marketing-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:32 AM
Subject: Re: [Fedora-marketing-list] Next-release plans on the frontpage


> Dimitris Glezos wrote:
>
>> We could consider though including something "lighter" than the actual 
>> release
>> summary, right?
>
> In the front page before the release is made? I have planned it long back 
> but I havent had much help from anyone here before when I asked. See 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FC6LaunchMediaPlan.
>
>>
>> It's not a bad idea to have something like "What we are currently 
>> cooking".
>> GNOME goes a step further and includes such a section even in it's 
>> release notes:
>>
>>   http://www.gnome.org/start/2.14/notes/en/rnlookingforward.html
>>
>> Cooking something doesn't mean it will actually be served. Hell, it might 
>> get
>> even burnt. =)
>
> We frequently dont have much information about the next release but I dont 
> mind listing a few things that we things we are about to do. For FC7,
>
> Reducing the size of Fedora Core. KDE in Extra among other things.
> Network Manager by default
> Unifying Core and Extras repository
> {insert other plans here}
>
>>
>> I think this is cool (from a marketing perspective), it motivates users 
>> to
>> expect something, to actually look forward to the next version. We could 
>> start
>> with something not very specific/promising and as the test versions are 
>> released
>> become more specific. Besides, by the time of test3 things become pretty 
>> solid.
>>
>> -dim
>
> After test3 release yes but Leon's complaint as I understand it was that 
> we dont have any information about FC6 *right now* in the frontpage which 
> is think might be a bit premature.
>
> Rahul
>

I actually agree with the whats cooking concept.  It would be good to get 
feedback from the devs and or ask them or someone from them to post up what 
they expect to be in say the next release then a future future release. 
Something that is getting worked on for FC6 and something thats hopefully 
going to make it to FC7.

At the top of the page we should put in big bold letters THIS IS NOT 
GUARANTEED TO BE IN.  As was said.  I still think we will get people saying 
why wasn't this or that in there.

I think in creating a page and linking it to the front we can get people to 
see where fedora is going.  The complaints about Fedora are being heard and 
are being addressed.  These aren't specific package bugs but conceptual 
bugs.  E.g. Fedora is to big and bulky.  Well in the future we are planning 
on reducing the size of it.

Things like that show that the devs are hearing the voices.  I remember 
Rahul getting berated on the fedora_users list because someone kept saying 
why does RH not listen to us and obviously they wanted changes in Fedora 
which had not happened.  I'm not to sure what it was regarding cause soon 
after I left cause it deteriorated into an underlying issue which had 
nothing to do with Fedora, one of the answers that was said was well you can 
get involved.  Which I agree with.

However the point of that is people don't know whether the devs know what 
the complaints are.  Not bug specific but feature specific.  I feel that a 
lot of the time the devs do hear what people say however they can't or 
choose not to communicate that back to the users and this page I feel would 
aide in that.

However some of the complaints that I had without posting or saying anything 
are getting dealt with and while it was a pleasant surprise I would have 
liked to know what potentially is going to happen in the future.  This also 
helps people with changes that are going to cause potential issues. 
SELinux, Hal originally I had huge number of issues with it.  Mainly due to 
me stuffing things up and manually adding mounts in fstab the usual.  While 
I have no doubt SELinux was a significant step forward there seemed to have 
very little info about it at the time.  Since then its improved immensely 
which is great however it would have been nice to see it ahead of time 
again.

I'm sorry if this seems way to long I just wanted to put some suggestions 
forward unfortunately I personally don't have the time to help specifically 
with it due to University contributing a significant work load to me.


Regards,



Marc