Release Team's Almost-Final Modules List

[Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>]

Hi everyone,

The release team has discussed the modules list at great length over the
last few weeks (seems like an eternity...) and has compiled this list, which
hopefully represents a consensus of the input we've received about each of
the proposed modules.

This list will become the official new modules list for GNOME 2.3.x on June
2, enshrined forever in GEP 11, unless we hear loud wailing and gnashing of
teeth at any of our judgements before then. That means you have just under a
week to bring up any doubts or queries you have about this list.

The comments and rationale have been proofed by the release team, and should
be considered our 'combined opinion'.


  In
  --

  Note that all of these apps must continue to meet the standards of quality
  laid out in GEP 10, or they may be removed prior to the final 2.4 release.
  We would not expect that to happen very often, though. :-)

    epiphany
    gcalctool
    gtksourceview
    gnome-mag
    gnome-speech
    gnomemeeting
    gnopernicus
    gok
    gpdf
    gucharmap
    nautilus-cd-burner
    fontilus (now part of control-center)
    themus (now part of control-center)
    zenity

  
  Out
  ---

    battfink
    
      This module was removed from the proposed modules list at the author's
      request. Further work to enrich the energy saving infrastructure will
      be done, so it looks like battfink will be proposed again for 2.6.
    
    galeon

      There was a lot of vocal support for Epiphany on the mailing list, but
      little for Galeon. So, the consensus points to Epiphany. That was due
      to a number of factors: The Epiphany project goals seem to be better
      aligned with GNOME's goals, the Galeon developers do not seem to be
      100% behind GNOME's goals; Epiphany has had regular releases for GNOME
      2.3.x; the Epiphany hackers are working within the project to define
      standards and code for toolbar editing and other functionality, etc.
      While there are a lot of reservations about offending the Galeon
      hackers, and great disappointment that the two projects have not been
      able to cooperate, Epiphany does seem to have the consensus, and make
      the most technical sense. That is not to say that Epiphany is without
      faults, or that Galeon is not excellent software -> we do need to make
      a choice at some stage: Right now there is strong support to add a
      browser to the Desktop release, and strong support for that browser to
      be Epiphany.
    
    gedit-plugins

      Paolo agreed to shift the most useful plugins into gedit, and remove
      gedit-plugins from the proposed modules list. It will live on as a
      separate cool-plugins-for-gedit package.
    
    gswitchit, xklavier

      There was not a lot of discussion or vocal support for these modules,
      while there were suggestions that it would not work with previous
      generation X servers, and queries about the user interface (such as
      integration with control centre, what we really want out of keyboard
      and language selection, etc). We should continue to watch this module
      so we can fix these issues in 2.6.
    
    seahorse

      Whilst there was a lot of support for some of seahorse's features in
      the desktop release, its current state exposes implementation in a way
      that many users will not immediately grasp. There were suggestions
      that it could integrate with an address book system, that it could
      concentrate on the common use cases of encrypting files and checking
      signatures, etc. On the whole, it's great, but the interface is very
      GPG-oriented, and it doesn't deeply integrate into GNOME. Hopefully,
      we'll see it up for proposal again for 2.6.

  
  Undecided
  ---------

  We hope to have final proposals for these modules in the next few days.

    gnome-system-tools

      This module is being discussed on d-d-l at the moment. Left undecided.
    
    sound-juicer

      This module is being discussed on d-d-l at the moment. Left undecided.
    
    totem

      We are leaving Totem as "undecided" for now, pending a 0.6.2 release
      from the GStreamer team. If that indicates that the GStreamer backend
      for Totem has a chance of working in the 2.4 timeframe, it will be
      added to the final modules list. Note that we are not including DVD
      support in our criteria for "working" - this simplifies distributor
      issues anyway. It must be made clear that a media player is a very
      important missing link in the GNOME Desktop release; if Totem with
      gstreamer is not working for 2.4, then we should carefully consider
      our options for 2.6, because it would be disappointing to go without a
      media player in the Desktop release for that long.


Thanks to all of the maintainers who proposed modules for this release!

- Jeff

-- 
linux.conf.au 2004: Adelaide, Australia         http://lca2004.linux.org.au/
 
   "Everyone says they like Free Software - not everyone is ready to make
         the tough choices to make it happen." - Maciej Stachowiak