[Blends-commit] [SCM] blends-gsoc branch, master, updated. e73e6971c866dd13e63f349d03111383377ea6c0
Emmanouil Kiagias
e.kiagias at gmail.com
Tue Sep 17 20:52:46 UTC 2013
The following commit has been merged in the master branch:
commit e73e6971c866dd13e63f349d03111383377ea6c0
Author: Emmanouil Kiagias <e.kiagias at gmail.com>
Date: Tue Sep 17 22:52:29 2013 +0200
sgml to xml continue: converted doc/en/03_general_ideas.xml from sgml to xml
diff --git a/doc/debian-blends.en.xml b/doc/debian-blends.en.xml
index 02307b6..3bed48b 100644
--- a/doc/debian-blends.en.xml
+++ b/doc/debian-blends.en.xml
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
-<?xml version='1.0'?>
+<?xml version='1.0' ?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V5.0a1//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.0/docbookx.dtd" [
<!-- textual data entities -->
- <!ENTITY titletoc SYSTEM "en/00_titletoc.xml">
- <!ENTITY ch-introduction SYSTEM "en/01_introduction.xml">
+ <!ENTITY titletoc SYSTEM "en/00_titletoc.xml">
+ <!ENTITY ch-introduction SYSTEM "en/01_introduction.xml">
<!ENTITY ch-about SYSTEM "en/02_about.xml">
+ <!ENTITY ch-general-ideas SYSTEM "en/03_general_ideas.xml">
+
]>
@@ -14,5 +16,6 @@
&ch-introduction;
&ch-about;
+ &ch-general-ideas;
</book>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/doc/en/03_general_ideas.xml b/doc/en/03_general_ideas.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9538601
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/en/03_general_ideas.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,270 @@
+<chapter id="general">
+ <title>General ideas</title>
+ <sect1 id="lookbeyond">
+ <title>Looking beyond</title>
+ <para>
+ Commercial Linux distributors sell certain products that try to
+ address special user needs.
+
+ <variablelist><varlistentry><term>Enterprise solutions</term><listitem><itemizedlist><listitem><para>Corporate Server - Mandriva</para></listitem><listitem><para>Advanced Server - RedHat</para></listitem><listitem><para>Enterprise Server - SuSE</para></listitem></itemizedlist></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Small Office and Home Office (SOHO)</term><listitem><para>There are a couple of workstation or home editions, as well as
+ office desktops built by several GNU/Linux distributors.
+ </para></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Special task products</term><listitem><variablelist><varlistentry><term>Mail server</term><listitem><para>SuSE Linux Openexchange Server</para></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Firewall</term><listitem><para>Multi Network Firewall - Mandriva, SuSE Firewall on CD,
+ ...</para></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Cluster</term><listitem><para>Mandriva Clustering</para></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Content Management System</term><listitem><para>RedHat</para></listitem></varlistentry><varlistentry><term>Portal Server</term><listitem><para>RedHat</para></listitem></varlistentry></variablelist></listitem></varlistentry></variablelist>
+
+This is only a small set of examples of commercial GNU/Linux
+distributors addressing specific user interests with certain products.
+</para>
+ <para>
+Debian solves this problem with <emphasis>Debian Pure Blends</emphasis>.
+</para>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="motivation">
+ <title>Motivation</title>
+ <sect2 id="userprofile">
+ <title>Profile of target users</title>
+ <para>
+The target user of a Blend may be a specialist of a certain
+profession, (e.g. a doctor or lawyer,) a person who has not (yet)
+gathered a certain amount of computer knowledge, (e.g. a child,) or a
+person with disabilities (e.g. a visually or hearing impaired
+person.) Moreover, the customisation might deal with peculiarities of
+certain regions where users have needs that differ from Debian as a
+whole.
+</para>
+ <para>
+It is not unusual for these target users to be less technically
+competent than the stereotypical Linux user. These people are often
+not interested in the computer for its own sake, but just want it to
+work for them. Imagine the frustration of a doctor who has to move
+the focus of interest from the patient to his stupid computer that
+does not work as expected.
+</para>
+ <para>
+Because of limited knowledge or time, the target user is usually
+unable to install upstream programs. This means that in the first
+place, they must find out which software packages in their
+distribution might serve for a certain problem. The next step would
+be to download and install the packages they choose, perhaps requiring
+a certain amount of configuration effort. This problem is nearly
+impossible for a user with limited technical competence and perhaps
+poor English language comprehension, which prevents the user from
+understanding the installation manual.
+</para>
+ <para>
+The language barrier in this field is an important issue, because we
+are targeting everyday users who are not compelled to learn English,
+like Free Software developers are, for everyday communication. So the
+installation process has to involve the least possible user
+interaction, and any such interaction has to be internationalised.
+</para>
+ <para>
+Furthermore, most target users have no or little interest in
+administration of their computer. In short, the optimal situation
+would be that he would not even notice the existence of the computer,
+but just focus on using the application to accomplish the task at
+hand.
+</para>
+ <para>
+Common to all groups of target users is their interest in a defined
+subset of available Free Software. None of them would like to spend
+much time searching for the package that fits his interest. Instead,
+the target user would prefer to immediately and effortlessly locate
+and access all material relevant to solving his own problems.
+</para>
+ <para>
+There is an absolute need for easy usage of the programs. This is not
+to say users expect to not have to learn to use the software. Adults
+generally accept that they must spend a reasonable amount of time in
+learning how to use a piece of software before they can do something
+useful and productive with it. But a simple-to-learn environment
+greatly enhances the value of the software, and if you consider
+children as target users, they just want to start using it right away
+without reading any documentation.
+</para>
+ <para>
+The more important part of the request for easy usage is a
+professional design that is functional and effective. To accomplish
+this, the programmers need expert knowledge, or at least a quick
+communication channel to experts to learn more about their
+requirements. One task for Debian Pure Blends is to bring programmers
+and experts who will use those special programs together.
+</para>
+ <para>
+Last, but not least, we find certain requirements beyond just which
+packages are provided in each target user group. These may differ
+between different Blends. For instance, while a doctor has to protect
+his database against snooping by outside attackers, the privacy risk
+for a child's system are of lesser importance. Thus, the Debian
+Junior project cares more for ensuring that the user himself does not
+damage the desktop environment while playing around with it than about
+remote attacks. So we find a "defined security profile" for each
+single Blend.
+</para>
+ </sect2>
+ <sect2 id="adminprofile">
+ <title>Profile of target administrators</title>
+ <para>
+In the field that should be covered by Debian Pure Blends, we have to
+face also some common problems for system administrators. Often they
+have limited time in which they must serve quite a number of
+computers, and thus they are happy about each simplification of the
+administration process. The time required to make special adaptations
+for the intended purpose has to be reduced to a minimum.
+</para>
+ <para>
+So, administrators are looking for timesaving in repetitive tasks.
+While this is a common issue for each general GNU/Linux distribution,
+this could have certain consequences in the special fields Debian Pure
+Blends want to address.
+</para>
+ <para>
+Another problem administrators face is that they are often not experts in
+their clients' special field of work. Thus, they may need some specialist
+knowledge to explain the use of special programs to their users, or at
+least need to be able to communicate well with the experts about their
+special needs, and how the software can be used to address them.
+</para>
+ </sect2>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="status">
+ <title>Status of specialised Free Software</title>
+ <para>
+Programs like a web server, or a mail user agent are used by many
+different users. That is why many gifted programmers feel obliged for
+this kind of Free Software - they just need it for their own. So you
+normally find a fast, growing community around Free Software packages
+that have a wide use. This is different for specialised software.
+</para>
+ <para>
+In this context, the term "specialised software" refers to the kind of
+software that is needed by some experts for their job. This might be
+a practice management system that is used by doctors, a graphical
+information system (GIS) that is used by geographers, a screen reader
+that helps blind people to work with the computer, etc. The
+difference between such software and widely used software like office
+suites is that the user base is relatively small. This is also true
+for certain software that supports special localisation issues.
+
+<itemizedlist><listitem><para>
+ Specialist software is used only by a limited set of users (i.e. the
+ specialists). There exists a set of software tools that work
+ perfectly in the environment where they were developed. If the
+ developers catch the idea of Free Software, and just release this
+ software as-is, people in the new, broader user community often run
+ into trouble getting it to work in their environment. This happens
+ because the developers did not really care about a robust installation
+ process that works outside their special environment. As well,
+ installation instructions are often badly written, if they exist at
+ all. But these problem can be easily solved by shipping the software
+ as policy-compliant binary packages, which not only ease installation,
+ but also require documentation to be included. Thus, mere inclusion
+ in Debian benefits the whole user base of any specialised software.
+ </para></listitem><listitem><para>
+ The trouble often continues in the maintenance of the installed
+ software.
+ </para></listitem><listitem><para>
+ When it comes to the usage of the specialist software, it often
+ happens that it perfectly fits the needs of the developer who wrote it
+ for his own purposes, and who is familiar with its quirks, but in many
+ cases such software does not comply with ergonomic standards of user
+ interfaces.
+ </para></listitem><listitem><para>
+ Several existing programs that might be useful for specialists are not
+ really free in the sense of
+ the <ulink url="http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines">
+ Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)</ulink>. Programs that are
+ incompatible with the DFSG cannot be included in Debian. This is
+ possibly a drawback for those programs, because they could profit by
+ spreading widely on the back of Debian over the whole world.
+ </para></listitem><listitem><para>
+ A certain number of programs are developed at universities by students
+ or graduates. Once these people leave the university, the programs
+ they developed might be orphaned; <emphasis>i.e.</emphasis>, not actively
+ maintained anymore. If their licenses are too restrictive, it may be
+ impossible for anyone else to take over; sticking to
+ <!-- <comment>AT: We should find a way to avoid printing the URL in PDF output.</comment> -->
+ <ulink url="http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines">
+ DFSG</ulink>-free licenses avoids that problem.
+ </para></listitem><listitem><para>
+ In special fields, often "typical" (not necessarily Intel-based)
+ hardware architectures are used. Debian currently runs on 11
+ different architectures, and automatic build servers normally compile
+ software packages as necessary. If auto-builders for other
+ architectures show problems, Debian maintainers will normally fix
+ them, and send the original authors a patch. Moreover, users can
+ report run-time problems via the
+ <ulink url="http://www.debian.org/Bugs/">Debian Bug Tracking System</ulink>.
+ </para></listitem><listitem><para>
+ Many programs that are written from scratch use their own non-standard
+ file formats. However, it is often important for programs to be able
+ to share data with each other.
+ </para></listitem><listitem><para>
+ Often there are several programs that try to solve identical or
+ similar problems. For instance the Debian Med team faces this in the
+ case of programms claiming to serve as a medical practice management
+ solution. Normally, all these programs
+ take very interesting approaches but all of them have certain
+ drawbacks. So, joining programmers' forces might make sense here.
+ </para></listitem><listitem><para>
+ Sometimes the tools or back-ends used in Free Software are not
+ appropriate for such applications. For instance, sometimes
+ database servers that do not use transactions are used to store
+ medical records, which is completely unacceptable. Other programs use web
+ clients as their front-end, which is not really good for quick (mouse-less)
+ usage, a great shortcoming for repetitive tasks.
+ </para></listitem></itemizedlist>
+
+</para>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="general_problem">
+ <title>General problem</title>
+ <para>
+Free Software development is a kind of evolutionary process. It needs a
+critical mass of supporters, who are:
+
+<itemizedlist><listitem><para>programmers <emphasis>and</emphasis></para></listitem><listitem><para>users</para></listitem></itemizedlist>
+
+Because specialised software has a limited set of users, (specialists,)
+this results in a limited set of programmers.
+</para>
+ <para>
+Debian wants to attract both groups to get it working.
+</para>
+ <para>
+ <emphasis>Debian is the missing link between upstream developers and users.</emphasis>
+ </para>
+ </sect1>
+ <sect1 id="philosophy">
+ <title>Debian Pure Blends from philosophical point of view</title>
+ <para>
+Debian currently grows in several directions:
+
+<itemizedlist><listitem><para>Number of involved people</para></listitem><listitem><para>Number of packages</para></listitem><listitem><para>Number of architectures</para></listitem><listitem><para>Number of bugs</para></listitem><listitem><para>Number of users</para></listitem><listitem><para>Number of derivatives</para></listitem><listitem><para>Time span between releases</para></listitem></itemizedlist>
+
+So several features are changing at different rates their quantity.
+According to Hegel a change of quantity leads into a change in
+quality. That means that Debian will change at a certain point in
+time (or over a certain time span) its quality.
+</para>
+ <para>
+"To determine at the right moment the critical point where
+ quantity changes into quality is one of the most important and
+ difficult tasks in all the spheres of knowledge." (Trotzki) This
+ might mean that we just passed the point in time when Debian changed
+ its quality. At one point we even observed a change once the package
+ pool system was implemented to cope with the increased number of
+ packages while trying to reduce the time span between releases. Even
+ if the plan to increase the frequencies of releases failed Debian
+ became a new quality. People started using the <filename>testing</filename>
+ distribution even in production which was not really intended and in
+ a consequence even security in <filename>testing</filename> was implemented
+ for Sarge.
+</para>
+ <para>
+According to Darwin evolution happens through quantitative
+transformations passing into qualitative. So Debian has to evolve and
+to cope with the inner changes and outer requirements to survive in
+the Linux distribution environment.
+</para>
+ </sect1>
+</chapter>
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