I wish we dedicated this list (cooker) for the development version of
Mandrake Linux, namely cooker!
Every, three or four months we have this thing called "Beta Release",
and good God does cooker and cooker development die ... we get like
10000dB noise to signal on cooker issues!
All kinds of people (mostly beta installers with limited knowledge) join
in and pollute the troubleshooting of real deep problems with install
reports and silly questions. I am not saying that this should not occur;
I am just saying that it should occur on another separate list. I do a
lot of trouble shooting of real architectural problems on the distro,
and I like doing that because I like living on the edge; but every time
we get into the beta cycles I just get tired of reading 200+ messages
(90% unimportant) trying to look for the ones from cooker "regulars". I
delete anything that has "install" or "beta" in the subject.
Another thing I would like to see from Mandrake is a "**real** database
driven web-based public bugtraking system" like bugzilla or Double
Chocolate. Actually this was my first suggestion when I joined the list
a year ago. I used to be a rawhide nut; they use bugzilla, and that
provided a very efficient way to see exactly what has been happening
with a bug, from its report to its resolution/closure. It provided a
real way for contributors to contribute resolutions without duplicating
efforts; but more (actually much much much more) important, it kept a
record of problem-solution. Very often I have seen that we spend a lot
of time identifing/troubleshooting/solving a problem with some package,
and after it is solved it happens again, sometimes in the same package a
couple of releases later.
If Mandrake does not have anybody to install a bugzilla box I volunteer
to do it.
And please don't tell me you already have a bugtracking system, since
that Debian email based system just does not compare to Bugzilla, plus
it does not have a web interface.
I think that bouncing back and forth a problem through email is just an
inefficient way of defining/documenting/solving it; much less build a
knowledge base. Which brings me to the other advantage of such a system,
a "Knowledge Base". A FAQ or a mail archive are NOT reasonable a
knowledge base of a modern vendor.
Pardon my criticism, but I think that if we got a little more organized
we could do so much more.
--
Eugenio Diaz, BSEE/BSCE
Linux Engineer
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
