Re: Is our name confusing people....

[Riccardo Mottola]

Stef Bidi wrote:
> I just want to say that I agree with others have already said.  I also 
> like Riccardo's suggestion.
Thanks.. AS for the names I made them up.  Cocoa is still playing along 
"Java" "Kaffe" "Cappuccino" tune...
"Cacao" is not a good choice: it is/was a free Java VM...

I somehow like "Espresso". It means.. it's fast :) We could also break 
this stupid beverage thing.
> On Wed, Nov 17, 2010 at 4:52 PM, Germán Arias <address@hidden 
> <mailto:address@hidden>> wrote:
>
>     Currently many distros have the latest packages of GNUstep: OpenSuse,
>     Debian Squeeze, Fedora 14, Gentoo, Arch Linux, T2, OpenBSD, Frugalware
>     linux. If these packages works or not is other thing.
>
> Exactly!  Having the latest GNUstep packages isn't the issue... the 
> issue is that GNUstep-based software isn't released as frequently.  If 
> you want to compare apples to apples, GWorkspace, for example, only 
> gets updated every 18 months, or so; SystemPreferences hasn't gotten 
> one since 2009; And other apps even longer.  Really, only the GAP 
> projects seem to get a decent release schedule (I gotta give Riccardo 
> props for releasing so often despite being almost the sole GAP developer).
I don' t think we need a "linked" release cycle. If an app works and 
there are no new features, no new release is needed. Of course if the 
last release doesn't compile, we should at least prvide a minor release 
with the necessary maintenance.  But often either the application is 
unmaintained or instead it developed further for the next release, which 
is not yet ready. So to achieve your goal, somebody should take the work 
to check against the release if everything works "no worse" than before 
and if not, then backport changes or anyway produce an improved minor 
release.

You don't need a tight release cycle for something like "vi", don't you? 
But you need to make sure it compiles regularly.
> More frequent updates to GNUstep-based apps would go a very long way.  
> GNUstep already seems to be in a fairly decent schedule (every few 
> months), but the apps seem to almost never get released.  There are 
> also certain apps that only work if you check out an SVN copy.  And in 
> other cases the app simply instead there (Bean and FlexiSheet in GAP's 
> cvs repo comes to mind).
If an app has a release but has you need a SVN version, then it is in 
the category of the above point.
Other applications like Bean and FlexiSheet are not ready for prime time 
yet. Releasing something too buggy and ugly will scare people away 
instead of ecnouraging them to join and fix them. Since GAP has limited 
manpower, it concentrates in keeping the released apps working and 
up-to-date.
> The identity crisis doesn't help either, but I don't think it's as big 
> of a problem as some might think.
I think that too. But our PR could still be better, by marketing our 
"framework" both separately and as part of a "destkop" we could appeal a 
wider range. That would mean also separate sections in the wiki, 
separate brochures... We have part of that of course, it is just scattered.
>     Of course there others big distros that don't offers GNUstep, like:
>     Ubuntu, Mandriva and Slackware.
SUre. Debian support is there but suboptimal and sadly several apps are 
missing or very, very old. Maybe they miss because they duplicate 
another non-gnustep app... but that doesn't help a true "experience". 
Otherwise, KOffice would make no sense... there is OOffice. Or why 
Chromium if we have Firefox?
I have also read form people that the Debian Packages have problems on 
ubuntu... I don't want to say anything bad about Ubuntu... but for the 
end-user it is a problem of course.

Let's add RPM based distributions, Redhat/CentOS first. I did several 
RPM packages, but apparently demand was little. RIchard Stonehouse does 
some excellent work. I don't know how he fares.
Best of course is to be in the official repo, like we have on gentoo or 
some BSDs.

Riccardo