williwaw wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 4:07 am
ozsouth wrote: ↑Mon Sep 11, 2023 1:28 am
I came to the realisation today, that most of us are relying on a few ............That is why, I believe, we have many visitors & few contributors - ............, we will be left behind,
I am not sure how this comment factors in to attracting more dev minded members, but when look online for a void forum to research void stuff, I find the forum gone, the mailing list closed and
https://www.reddit.com/r/voidlinux/comm ... ?rdt=44116
are forums for dinosaurs?
are most here dinosaurs?
are we mirroring dinosaurs?
I feel this is a good question. Void Linux had already 'lost' its original forum by the time I myself became interested in Void Linux (a forum which was started by an individual rather than by Void Linux original developer - much like the late John Murga started old puppy forum and rockedge started this one). The Void Linux developer(s) accepted that forum as officially sanctioned thereafter, but they couldn't control its use and it was 'lost'. By the time FirstRib project started (early 2019), which brought use of Void Linux repos/package-manager to the old Puppy Forum, the Void Linux forum was already gone and replaced by a pretty awful (I feel) reddit alternative.
However, the fact is that Puppy Linux distro development isn't 'done' via discussion on this forum either - rather its dev site is on github, being at woof-CE. Only a few of this forum's members are much if at all involved there. That's just how it is (and not surprising I feel).
Similarly, main Void Linux development has also nothing to do with any forum (or reddit) but is done via its github packages site. If you look at the 'issues' part of that site you may however note that quite a number of 'people' are involved in raising issues there, and presumably many of these have dev skills: https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/issues
So, in that sense, a forum for most distros has little, if anything, to do with actual development of the distro(s) concerned. Indeed Void Linux does invite contribution support but makes it perfectly clear that its github site is the venue for such work: https://docs.voidlinux.org/contributing/index.html
If you are not an active member of Void Linux github packages site therefore, you are nothing more and nothing less than a Void Linux supporter/user. No doubt some opinions voiced on Void Linux reddit get noticed and sometimes acted upon, but not necessarily - github package issues raising is the place to be heard.
Okay, so Puppy Linux distro has a similar github dev site, but the problem is the number of Puppy users who contribute to that or raise issues there is relatively low, hardly any in fact and so Puppy Linux development becomes really the pursuit of only one or two, higher skilled, individuals (approaching one person, one might suggest).
This forum on the other hand, remains 'relatively' active, though most posts tend to be by the same couple of dozen or so individuals, which is pretty tiny already, and even tinier in terms of skilled dev level discussions. Having said that, some of the discussions on this forum tend to be quite 'interesting; it's a forum in its own right and still with a fair number of creative or creative-interested personalities. Hence project work does get initiated here that can involve less highly skilled contributors than the typical github site would attract.
The key to that, from my perspective, was to make a relatively simple build system that accepts the use of some core (more complex) components (such as core initrd and upstream repos and package management usually) but where main build thereafter is not dictated by any single skilled dev team (nor needing it), but instead done via individual, relatively simple to construct, plugin code that instructs what upstream repo components are to be included and how they are to be configured; in other words a de-centralised approach, where aside from the initrd (and package manager/repos used) the main build is not under anyone's control aside from the individual (or team) constructing their own individualised build recipe plugin. I'm not suggesting that is a 'better' overall approach, but it was specially tailored for such forum discussion/use, and in that form, very different from how Void Linux, or Puppy Linux for that matter is developed (via their dev-type git-site), and I went for that 'simple kind of' KL/FR build mechanism from the viewpoint that it 'might' allow more forum members to be involved than a hard-core dev git-site sort of arrangement that is certainly more 'professional' in terms of software development approaches. It also leaves the critical hard-core level development to those who are capable of such work, which is not most of us... The disadvantage is that the final root filesystem ends up being fully compatible with a default upstream root filesystem; the advantage is that its composition is under our/the-plugin-creator's control and includes typical/near-complete frugal installation functionality/flexibility. So it is not so 'unique' as a completely hand-crafted/dev-skilled/built system (though not many distros not relying on upstream repos nowadays anyway...). However, most of us here are not 'professions' in computer software development; we may, many of us, be dinosaurs, but that is another matter (of concern for the future).
Anyway, that's just one forum-driven approach. I'm not suggesting its better in terms of results, which are as good or bad as the plugin builder makes it. But at least it is a somewhat active approach for now at least. But it is not alone in that respect.
Currently, I have to say, I'm quite happy to see the amount of new project work being explored; hardly a day goes by without something new being offered to try out. It's a hobby (as far as I view it all) - and hobbies should involve active participation. I don't see anything as competing with any other distro, and especially not with major team-dev-built distros like Linux Mint (I use and really like its XFCE version), or Ubuntu, or whatever, but like most hobbies the build results here, whilst probably never satisfying the needs of the wider Linux market audience, nevertheless tend to all provide something useful and specific per any carefully made handicraft. Maybe becoming like the dinosaurs though. Maybe smart-phones made that true for most people anyway.