SalixmeetApr2013

Salix online meeting (28th April 2013)

Participants

Active participants

• akuna
• djemos
• fredg
• gapan
• JRD
• mimosa

Minutes

Server

• What to do if a server is down and the person isn't available?

<gapan> Sudoers should be used with an email sent to the owner each time someone uses sudo; then we can isolate salix with a jail of some sorts. Nobody uses it unless it's absolutely needed to. And probably make a log of everyones actions while logged.

• As a long term solution, Salix needs a dedicated server
• The cost of the server might be 350-400 euros per annum, say 4 euros a month for each team member
• In the mean time, the sudoers method will be adopted

Salix e.V.

• To have the server and fund it, an official organisation needs to be created (cost: 20 euros)
• JRD volunteered to set it up
• Then Salix can have a bank account and also a Paypal acount to receive donations
• A link to this could be placed on the website, and it could be announced on the forum
• This would be likely to lead to an initial influx of cash
• Other "cafepress" items would be possible, such as T-shirt, Live USB
• However, more thought is needed about how to pay for the server.

Github account

• Should the github account be retained for Salix tools?

https://github.com/Salix-OS

• It makes a statement that the owner of the tools is the organisation (Salix)
• It can be hard to leave/abandon your name for an organisation's
• There are logistical advantages
• gapan and fredg felt they would like to retain control of their sources
• Otherwise conflicts might arise
• JRD pointed out the flexibility github offers to create teams with different levels of access:

<JRD> you can have repo with only pull access to anyone a push access to another team....which could be only you

• The wiki already links to all our software:

http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/Software_developed_in-house

• Nobody is forced to use it if they prefer to keep their own repo
• it was agreed to keep it for now and see what comes of it

Regular meetings, not just for "business"

<akuna> one thought came to me while driving. is that sometimes à meeting is good just to catch up with everybody's live. to see how is everyone etc... we never take tîme for that but it is important too... :)

• mimosa volunteered to organise regular meetings, ideally monthly

akuna's responsibilities

• akuna feels he needs to be excused from Salix duties for a few months because of other commitments
• fredg said that giving a server is more than most people can do

Things we have decided to do and who will do them

• Despite his temporary semi-retirement from Salix duries, Akuna generously undertook to carry on helping with the server

• JRD will set up an official Salix organisation so there can be a Paypal and bank account

• A sudoers system will be set up to allow more people to fix the servers in an emergency - NB by whom?

• mimosa will organise regular team meetings each month (or thereabouts) and produce minutes

The next meeting

Perhaps early in June? As this time, not everyone may be able to come, but we can all contribute to what will be discussed at the next meeting.

The original agenda

For the record, here is the official agenda, which in turn is largely made up of things left over from the February meeting. In both cases, we found plenty to talk about without paying too much attention to the agenda. Perhaps the principal point that was left to one side was the question of defining roles and tasks more coherently.

• fredg : Need of a "road map" (what - goal - who - when - ...)
• fredg : The need or NOT of a Salix-OS Github account.
• fredg : Think about old members without activities on the 14.0 becoming veterans (ax, kerd, pwatk, shador, lmello, mb, thenktor ?, ...)
• fredg : New team members introduction (mimosa, jaysaye, ...)
• mimosa : Testing has got off to a slow start -- all I'm really doing is encouraging people to test. But it's a start. Ideas?
• mimosa : I've discussed with some of you an idea for the next release cycle: concentrate first on xfce and Live, then release other editions as both Live and install. I see two advantages to this: first, there is a lot of demand from users for Live. Secondly, Xfce beta gets a good testing response on the forum, and so does Live, but not so much the other editions. Not everyone has a spare partition for testing, or enjoys installing. It's easy to test a Live CD though. Ratpoison could be an exception (and has its own hard core of enthusiastic users). Having said that, I'd love to see Ratpoison Live. This plan would presumably mean more people working on Live to get it ready quickly. I'd be happy to get involved myself.
• akuna : Share the work that is going on in all departments ATM and clarify who does what so we all know what is actually taken care of and what is not.
• akuna : Flowchart of all that needs to be done in Salix and who does what
• akuna : Establish some sort of guidelines for active contributors joining the core team, the idea is that although we want to facilitate the contribution threshold, we also want to ensure a certain level of reliability. Team members need to pledge as much as possible to train newcomers to fill their post before they move on to new horizon (which we will all do sooner or later => the idea here is to ensure that Salix will outlive us all). Also a team member who have not produced any contribution for a certain time, or manifested himself on either the ML or the Forum for a few months (amount to be determined together) should try to be contacted and then maybe, be moved to the veteran section and we should either try to replace him or terminate his department if it is not that crucial.
• jrd : All what I wanted to say has been said, so I just add : better communicate (also internally as already been said) to the public. Not only on the website and distrowatch, but also keeping Wikipedia up to date, publish articles in specialized websites (in different languages if possible), produce videos that we put on Youtube and Daylymotion. Better use the social networks (I need to create a g+ account and help fredg promote Salix). Visibility is important to have more (users of course), but also contributors.
• jrd : publish the regular ISO together with the live iso if possible. Or very closely, like a couple of weeks maximum. Prepare the repo for all DE when publishing a new Salix version. All (or the more than we can) editions have to be upgradable at the same time, even if the ISOs are not ready yet for them. There is no such thing as "Salix Xfce 15.0 is out" with a "Salix LXDE 15.0 is not out yet". Either the repo is ok in 15.0 (apart from some packages which will be done in couples of weeks), or it isn't. It's confusing for people. I speak about the repo, not the ISOs. ISOs could (and should, for promotion), be released separately.
• mimosa : I'm not sure if this is the opposite of my suggestion above or more or less the same! But we have to prioritise *something* (xfce, Live, other editions)
• akuna : As it seems we are receiving a new influx of contributors, work on a contributor 'chart'. That will not only clarify the responsibilities involved, but it will also contribute to spread the load, while also probably encouraging new vocations if it is posted clearly somewhere for all to see. Next to it, we could also have a 'recruiting' section, where the needs for new contributions is clearly stated with distinct seats to fill in.
• gapan: What happens if one of our servers (enialis or salixos.org) goes down and the server owner/admin (jrd and Akuna respectively) is not available?