Re: Feature proposal: combined system status menu

[Florian Müllner <fmuellner gnome org>]

On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 3:51 AM, Sriram Ramkrishna <sri ramkrishna me> wrote:
> > At least until we get a better testing infrastructure in place, the
> > only way to get at least *some* user testing is [...] to get some minimal
> > exposure to adventurous users of unstable/experimental distributions
>
> Again treating your user base as your user test bed is going to create some
> backlash.  They have signed on to doing things the GNOME 3 way,  don't abuse
> them by rapidly adding new methodologies that they have to get used to after
> establishing use patterns already.

I was explicitly referring to the part of the user base that
runs/tests development versions. Is treating voluntary testers as test
bed really that bad (abuse even)?


> > "real" users generally only get to test a new feature once it appears in their distro
>
> I don't agree here at all.  First all, we should be able to use ostree and
> create new images based on the next-gen features branch.  [...]
>
> Our infrastructure is becoming sophisticated.  Use it and stress it.  We
> didn't get all this hardware for nothing.  Andrea and I will try to help out
> here.

First: If we are actually ready to roll out ostree images, that's
awesome news! Not having to rely on other parties to get our code
tested is a huge step forward. Still, the process is still new, so I'm
a bit wary about overwhelming testers with too many images at once -
getting early feedback on features (this proposal is not the only UI
change I expect this cycle) is certainly worthy, but it should also
not take away too many resources from getting as much testing as
possible of the master branch (after all, that's what we *will* ship
to users - catching regressions from non-UI code churn is not as shiny
as evaluating UI changes, but not any less needed).


Slightly off-topic, I guess that part of my problem is actually that I
don't consider this a huge change - or rather, not anymore. I've first
learned about the rough idea in a casual chat at fosdem, and my first
reaction was certainly along the lines of "whoa, big change, not so
sure, ...", but after digesting it for a while, it appears much more
minor. In general, stuff gets moved rather than removed -
tongue-in-cheek, the only thing missing from the mockups are my
neighbors' APs; I know that's not entirely true, and I don't agree on
every detail of the proposal myself (not to mention some question
marks), but I don't doubt that there will be sufficient clarification
and refinement - in particular now when can finally leverage ostree.
I'd just much prefer focusing on discussing/addressing individual
quirks instead of looking for ways to block the change as a whole ...