Category: General

Due to everything that has happened at Mandriva, I guess it is time to switch distributions. I have no idea when I made the switch to Mandriva, but I know for certain I’ve used it for the last 5 years. This means I am very used to my distribution. I’m currently investigating what distribution to switch to. At the moment I’m considering Fedora and openSUSE.

I appreciate a distribution which appreciates a non-active person. In all these years I mainly enjoyed the work that others put into Mandriva. Still, I did triage in the Mandriva Bugzilla for a while, contributed the occasional package, submitted some bugreports and occasionally (more like very rarely) joined the development discussion. Whenever I did help, it always resulted in a positive impression.

Things I look for are:

• Minimal amount of patches applied to GNOME
  So Ubuntu is out
• Good binary packages for x86_64 (no source distribution)
• Ideally libraries should be packaged as lib64 / lib. So not part of the main package. Makes it cleaner to compile using jhbuild
• Ideally a good split between x86_64 and ‘i386’, making it easy to have mix and match.
• Ideally rpm based
  This as I’ve used rpm for a long time.
• Ability to run latest unstable GNOME version preferably within hours of the tarball release using packages (so no jhbuild/GARNOME solution)
• Ideally able to run the development version of the distribution
• Ideally packages are available quickly after the upstream release
  I like to have the package within hours after the packager uploaded it. Requires a quick mirror, enough packagers and continuous release of new packages (not e.g. synced 1-2 times/week). Distribution/development freezes are fine if limited to 2 times a year.
• External but nicely supported repository which has the more difficult (patented, etc)software (mp3, x264, etc)
  PLF handles this perfectly for Mandriva.
• I need the nvidia binary driver
  Mandriva uses DKSM for this. It automatically (re)compiles the driver, sets up something using alternatives, etc. Totally painless, even with kernel upgrades, etc.

I’ve been looking into Fedora and openSUSE as I am pretty used to rpm. Ubuntu is out of the question due to the big changes it has compared to GNOME. I haven’t completed any analysis yet. I currently have the following impression regarding openSUSE

• Lots of meaningless discussion in the development mailing lists
  Mandriva development mailing lists almost solely talk about actual development (well, until the latest financial troubles). Compared to this, openSUSE has loads of meaningless posts.
• Difficult to determine if GNOME is just not the focus (which is fine, hopefully results in less differences compared to upstream) or that the distribution is actively hostile towards GNOME desktop
  Seems a bit hostile when reading various discussions within the mailing lists and when judging previous decisions. Especially amazed to read discussion which is intended to change what people like to work on (e.g. have people switch from GNOME to another desktop) / quantify the amount of help a distribution receives overall. Gives a really bad impression (not appreciative). Mandriva was never seen as a GNOME distribution, but it always worked perfectly and it was well supported.
• Development version is available. It is called Factory
• Development packages (Factory) are released when approved by the package maintainer(s)
• For e.g. GNOME it is possible to run a GNOME:Factory branch and get the upstream packages very quickly
• Packages always need to be approved by maintainers (even in these branches)
  With Mandriva I got the impression that it was more free-for-all (aside from stuff like the kernel and Mozilla). Sort of how git.gnome.org works (if you know what you’re doing you’re able to do whatever you want).
• No idea regarding mp3/x264 driver
• No idea regarding nvidia driver
• Vuntz helps out here. So hopefully easier to be able to request changes (Mandriva responses towards bugs was overall a very positive experience)

PS: Above is my impression looking into openSUSE for the first time. And when I talk about Mandriva I usually mean the distribution (paid + volunteer contributors+developers), not just Mandriva the company.

If you want to be a board member, I highly recommend communicating in a different way than what you’ve done now. Anyway, just read the comment by Diegoe, I think it is pretty clear. In addition to that comment, there is no todo-list which guarantees a module will be accepted, though there are things what we look at.

Anyway, you seem to be looking for an argument. I thought we were clear beforehand and afterwards. You seem to be misinterpreting things. Please read the statements carefully and without prejudice. If you have questions after that, ask me privately and I’ll explain my reasoning.

PS: I think you’re being very rude by suggesting that Canonical could be a possible reason.

I wasn’t aware before, but it actually is pretty easy to setup IPv6 (using a 6to4 tunnel) on a distribution which uses initscripts (Fedora, Mandriva, probably others). See http://linux.yyz.us/ipv6-fc2-howto.html for the full details.

So if your ISP doesn’t do IPv6:

1. Add the following to /etc/sysconfig/network:

   NETWORKING_IPV6=yes
   IPV6_DEFAULTDEV=tun6to4

2. Add the following to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0:

   IPV6INIT=yes
   IPV6TO4INIT=yes

3. /etc/init.d/network restart

Note: If you have a firewall you probably want to review these rules. See above URL in those cases. I still noticed that connections to sites use IPv4 by default (even when IPv6 is available). The reason and solution is described at: http://wahjava.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/unable-to-view-ipv6-site-over-6to4-connection-in-firefox/. Initscripts also has some documentation. On my distribution it is available at /usr/share/doc/initscripts/ipv6-6to4.howto.

Thanks to Tomas Ögren (one of the ftp.acc.umu.se/ftp.gnome.org admins) for suggesting this.

For the GNOME infrastructure, most machines are hosted by Red Hat. They’re at least a year away from providing IPv6 (it is also not a high priority unfortunately). Above solution is fine for me, but not something good enough for the GNOME infrastructure (don’t want to rely on an unknown for the IPv6 connectivity of GNOME.org).

Had to approve a email message to foundation-list. Noticed a spam message in the queue from WebEx. Already knew that company, but apparently it is (now?) owned by Cisco. Anyway, there is no excuse for sending this to foundation-list.

The email ends with a sad:

This email may be an advertisement or solicitation. If you do not wish to receive marketing messages from WebEx, please select this link for removal.

Wonder what other solutions like WebEx exists. This as the company I work for unfortunately is a customer of WebEx. 🙁

So, after the GNOME Bugzilla upgrade done by Max Kanat-Alexander / Everythingsolved, a few more changes have been made:

• Stock Responses, by Frédéric Péters.
• Patch report, by Frédéric Péters (not linked yet from browse.cgi, an example).
• Describeuser, by Frédéric Péters (not committed yet, will have a different URL due to it being an extension).
• Weekly bug summary, by Frédéric Péters (not committed yet, will also have a different URL due to being an extension).
• Uses SSL now, almost solely done by Max Kanat-Alexander.
• Lots of fixes such as NEEDINFO->UNCONFIRMED, by Max Kanat-Alexander.
• Really small bugmail change and readd attachment link, by me.

Because upstream is going to use Bzr (we already use the bzr.bugzilla.org mirror), we use Bzr as well. This makes merging and so on much easier. Anyway, the additions done by Frédéric are done as extensions. This should make it easier to use them in other Bugzilla installations. The code can be found at http://launchpad.net/bugzilla.gnome.org.

If you’re wondering what features are still missing, see the email from Max Kanat-Alexander to desktop-devel-list.

Not attending GUADEC as it happens at the same time as some personal stuff.

Nice to see development improvements thanks to Git. Are there any more? Wonder if we should/could request a gnome.gitorious.org. Meaning: hosting by gitorious (so not official), and main repos on git.gnome.org. Then we’d just have a simple hook on git.gnome.org to trigger an update of the mirrors/clones on gitorious. Anyway, just a thought.

Read today about the following (shortened quote):

This morning, at around 05.00 UTC, Maersk Alabama, a 1,100 TEU container vessel, was attacked by pirates and presumed hijacked. The US flagged vessel has a crew of 20 US nationals and is owned and operated by Maersk Line, Limited in the US.

This made me recall a news article which I read a few weeks ago regarding another piracy attempt. The story included pictures where you could clearly see bullet holes, shattered bridge glass and a broken (presume by bullets) windscreen wiper. The master anonymously told that the only way they avoided being boarded was sheer luck.

I don’t want to go into the details about what can be done about piracy. What I would love is the abuse of calling copyright infringement ‘piracy’ to stop.

Not sure of the best way to translate BHV’er, but I volunteered to be one where I work. This means I’ll be responsible to perform First Aid, tackle small fires (only when just starting) and alarm/ evacuate people during emergencies (ensure everyone actually leaves their desks, plus taking special care of people who need extra help, e.g. people with leg injury, etc). Depending on the size of the organization and some other criteria, every company within the Netherlands is required to have a predetermined number of BHV’ers. Seems this is even an European requirement (law).

I’m not sure yet what the various tasks are. I was mostly interested in the First Aid training; the person who asked for volunteers knew less about the tasks than I did. Currently I know I have to follow a 5 day first aid training. I know there are regular exercises where BHV’ers test evacuation plans. Plus help out during the yearly ‘walk down the stairs at an annoyingly slow pace’ (evacuation exercise involving the whole building and also fire brigade). This is what I’ll know I’ll be responsible for, for the rest I’ll have to get an explanation from our Health and Safety officer.

As volunteer I’ll get nice benefits such as First Aid training and the ability to walk around in a bright orange jacket.