Projects in xfce repos, ehm...

[Jannis Pohlmann]

Hey,

Am Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:39:08 +0100
schrieb "Stephan Arts" <stephan at xfce.org>:

> Hi,
> 
> I was wondering... (please don't shoot me)
> 
> Shouldn't the following projects belong inside the xfce-goodies
> repositories?
> 
>  - Squeeze
>  - Xarchiver
>  - Terminal
>  - Orage (xfcalendar)
>  - xfmedia
>  - mousepad
> 
> They seem like add-ons to me.
> 
> And I wonder if the xfce-trigger-launcher should exist inside -goodies
> or -archive.
> 
> Does anyone else have an idea about that?

I think the problem is: How do we define the Core? Does Core just mean
it's managed in the main SVN, does it mean that it is shipped with the
main Xfce tarball on major Xfce releases or even something different?

Right now, Core could roughly described this way: a component that is
considered essential for desktop use, is stable, and is not released 
independently of the main Xfce releases.

Now, several of us have expressed an interest in having independent
releases for minor releases at least, so that we can roll out
updates to one component faster and don't have to do complex release
management. If we did that and only pick up the latest release of each
package for a new major Xfce release the definition of Core becomes: a
component that is considered essential for desktop use, is stable, and
is released every now and then so that we can pick it up for a major
release.

So once the release process becomes easier the only thing that really
matters is how essential an application is for desktop use. "Essential"
again is defined by our understanding of the desktop environment. IMHO
we should concentrate on what the user needs and to which degree we can
fullfil that need using the components and resources we have.

Personally I wouldn't mind to include more programs into the Core like
for power management and notifications for example, because those
make the desktop complete (IMHO Terminal, mousepad and orage are
essential even though I don't use mousepad). 
But I think what really matters is that more Core stuff does not make 
releasing more complex. I feel that this should be one of the things 
to focus on in the upcoming months. 

I also think there's room for improvements concerning the goodies
releases. Important goodies should get more attention and should maybe
get their own niché somewhere between core and goodies. Hmmm.

Personal opinion: Consider more applications as part of the Core (but
choose carefully) and don't make a big deal out of whether an
application is Core or not.

  - Jannis
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