On Wed, 25 Sep 2002 19:35:24 +0200 Warly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > 9.0 is (likely to be) finished. > > Thanks to you all for your precious help. > > During last 6 months period, and especially in the last beta period, some > of you give some advice/critic/flame regarding Mandrakesoft development > process. > > It is now the right time to debrief all this. > > Please comment on what you liked, disliked in the 9.0 building, testing > and problem reporting process. > > I already collect on various mandrake IRC channels: > > * send a mail to the changelog disk when packages are removed with the > reason > > * improve the cooker cooker FAQ pages, about cooker etiquette and > everything when reporting a bug > (http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/cookerfaq.php3) > > * improved bugzilla to have a easy mail interaction system, and a more > friendly interface. And to have a last known problems page.
First of all, congratulations to everyone at Mandrakesoft. A phenomenal, unbelievable effort ... and I feel I and many others made a difference too. Seeing something you reported being fixed brings you very close to the software, something you very rarely get with commercial software. I don't have anything to say on the building and testing process, but problem reporting is quite the opposite :) The problem reporting is very difficult to get right. My opinion is that there should be only one method of communication between beta testers and developers ... this mailing list, or possibly a dedicated newsgroup. The developers can cut and paste the valid bugs raised there into their own _internal_ database and have a read-only view of that made visible to the outside world (which would solve the 'last known problems' issue); the one exception to read-only would be the ability for the beta testers to add comments. After all: - the flexibility of a mailing list or newsgroup is unparalleled as posters can attach files, respond to other posts, be asked for and provide information, and get feedback on the spot; - I hate Web-based interfaces (and suspect I'm far from alone) as they're too slow and awkward: they also tend to be hostile to those with special needs (as someone with severe osteoarthritis who likes his keyboard I think I write with some authority ;) I really think bugzilla should be scrapped, for external use at least. The process whereby bug reports were pasted by Alan into this mailing list was dreadfully disjointed; in my estimation 80-90 per cent of those bug reports were worthless as the reporter was reporting 'cold' (with a mailing list there is a lot of precedent, in the form of previous postings, on how and what to post and what the current issues are) and, if there was any feedback from list members, it was difficult to get it back to the original bugzilla contributor. Doubtless doing all this will have, as a response, a howl that beta testers will be bombarded with emails. Such is life; I would prefer a small group of committed people who can cope with such things and keep going from beginning to end rather than 'occasional testers'. Alastair
