On 07/26/2010 11:31 PM, Jeremy Huntwork wrote: > Hello All, > > After reading a few requests for the project status on this list (e.g., > http://linuxfromscratch.org/pipermail/livecd/2010-March/005331.html, > http://linuxfromscratch.org/pipermail/livecd/2009-August/005314.html) and a > couple of personal emails, I think I need to bring this subject up to > determine what will happen to this project. It's important to discuss, > because while we've produced something here that a number of people like and > find useful, there are some pretty large reasons as to why this project > became stagnant. > I have "lurked" on this list for years. I've seen the questions about and requests (demands [?] ) for a liveCD. I agree completely with your assessment. If, and that might be a very big "if," a discussion generates, I think that one of the topics should be an assessment of the "...number of people [who] like and find [it] useful..." compared to the difficulty of development and maintenance. The conclusion here may obviate the need for a discussion of your other quite relevant topics. > Here's some of the main ones: > > 1. Maintenance nightmare. The build scripts for the CD just take way too > long, they're very procedural. And their current format makes them difficult > to maintain. (Of course, this may be just the nature of a LiveCD based on LFS > - this is difficult to say.) > Doesn't this, in large part, depend on the purpose of the project? I think I remember a day when a person could down load something, hit the "go" button and return some time later and see a new, shiny liveCD.iso. There's also what's available now, or at least the last time I downloaded the liveCD, which has LFS-6.5 on it. If I'm not mistaken, that's just a remastered 6.3, with the 6.5 "stuff" on it. Also, if memory serves me, it's got a 64-bit capability to it. I think that developing specificity in "purpose" is obvious from analyzing the ranges in possibilities in these two data points. > 2. The purpose of _this particular LiveCD and project_ has not been > maintained very clearly. And so the produced CD and many of the decisions > made about it have wandered. > I may have gotten ahead of myself in the preceding paragraph. This is important. > 3. Little real development support from others. Neither myself (nor Alexander > who probably doesn't even associate himself with this project anymore) have > the time or energy to keep this project moving by ourselves. If people want > this CD, they're going to have to help produce it. > I remember reading Alexander's comments a few years ago. I've seen a number of "I like it and I will help" remarks on this list. I don't know if there was any follow up to those offers, whether they were empty offers or whether the talents offered weren't "up to snuff" for the nebulous purpose of the project. Even if some people were rebuffed or ignored, I agree with this. I have no idea how many it takes to produce something like this, but I have a real hunch that 1-3 people would be seriously overloaded. > It comes down to this. If you, the readers of this list and users of this CD, > would like to produce future "official" versions of this CD, you are going to > have to come together to decide two things. > > 1. What future direction should the CD take and why (i.e., Stated Purpose, > build method, packages included, other features) > 2. How are we going to organize to achieve the answers to question 1? > +1 > If we can't answer those two things satisfactorily and put it into action, > then I'm afraid the best thing would really be to shut down the project > completely and officially. > Unfortunately, I believe that this is a reality. But isn't it also true that the project is shutdown now? I don't know what it means to have an operating project, but, if I'm not mistaken, only the formal framework of the liveCD project exists.
Jeremy, I think this all hinges on how many people enter the discussion and want to participate--at any level. Would you feel comfortable setting a deadline for the beginning of a discussion, although one may have already started with input from two, not counting your original message, and determining a minimum number of participants in the project to maintain it. If you do and you publish them and if neither condition gets satisfied, then I think it appropriate to do whatever you have to do. Thank you for bringing this up. Dan -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/livecd FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq/ Unsubscribe: See the above information page
