GNOME.org
 

Re: GNOME 2.20 release notes

I would view 2.19.x as something for the enthusiast/power user/version
chaser, but 2.20 will be a stable release.  Therefore suitable for the
masses, not bleeding edge.

--Ken

On 8/3/07, Toms <toms baugis gmail com> wrote:

I'll take a risk to jump into discussion.

GNOME release day is like finding Christmas present before Christmas. You
open the package, read release notes, clap your hands, tell everybody about
the cool bits we will get soon through, what's quite possible, your techy
blog. The blog has also quite large percent of non-techy readers for whom it
might be a real eye opener and motivator to think about a switch (of course,
in comfort of a techy friend, who will solve any potential problems).
Before Christmas, because jumping on bleeding edge is something that not lot
of people would like to do, so they just find the first stable distro that
will come with new GNOME and start to mark crosses in calendar.

I think Quim in his first mail put a really nice list,  just throwing my 5c
into pool of "enthusiasts" :)

Toms



On 8/3/07, Ken VanDine <ken vandine org> wrote:

Yes many of our users are "power users", but we are also gaining quite
a bit of traction in the new linux user category.  Which is what we
really want, the power users are easy to get.  We want the new users
to want to use GNOME and Foresight.  I would be very happy if what we
did was provide content for the ordinary user type audience.  Even if
it wasn't right on the front of w.g.o, but instead was available as
something the distro maintainers could redistribute to their users,
use on their websites and wikis, etc.

More than anything I don't want us to lose release notes content that
can't easily be produced by distros and ISVs.  As a distro maintainer
I might not have as much of the information as the team working on the
release notes.  And for me it is important to have that information on
release day.

--Ken


On 8/2/07, Quim Gil <qgil gnome org> wrote:

As the maintainer of a distro with a strong and explicit focus in
GNOME you will appreciate a page where to point your users, yes. But
aren't Foresight users falling mostly in the audiences I'm suggesting?
Wouldn't they enjoy be treated as power users, developers and the
like?
This would apply to advanced users or developers using Ubuntu, Debian,
Fedora etc. They are anyway receiving our news through the channels
they listen. But we can forget about targeting directly regular users
and sysadmins, and even regular journalists.
We need to be sure where is the GNOME foot standing, who is smelling
it and who will speak about its beauty and its power to wider
audiences.

On 8/2/07, Ken VanDine <ken vandine org> wrote:

I don't completely agree, as a distro maintainer that will be
delivering 2.20 on 2.20 release day, our users want to read about it.
We should write that content, not the distro.  It is less interesting
for users of other distros that take much longer to integrate the new
version, but even those could use that content when they do release
it.  Perhaps it is something that we package and include with gnome so
when users get the update they have a way to see the release notes...
just an idea.

--Ken

On 8/2/07, Quim Gil <qgil gnome org> wrote:

On 8/2/07, Murray Cumming < murrayc murrayc com> wrote:


I also want to try putting everything on one page, but I still

plan to

use the docbook translation system. We have no other way to do
translation at the moment, and it does work well.


Yes, yes, I wasn't questioning the use of DocBook. I only meant that
creating one page per language + external links gives less work with
DocBook than creating the 5-6 we have done until now.



(*) Taking in account these customers:

Application developers
Platform developers
Software integrators and distributors
Key software deployers (i.e. public administrations)
Software & Freedom enthusiasts
Tech press
End users at large: not a target


Please don't overlook the targeted audience of the release notes I'm
proposing here (specially the last line with the "not a target"). It
contradicts radically what we have been doing until now, and what
seems to be still the current plan.



Jorge has started a draft of the main text here:


http://live.gnome.org/TwoPointNineteen/ReleaseNotes/Draft


"The intended audience is the typical end-user."
"For Administrators"

I think we have been doing this mistake for so long. The day we
release GNOME 2.20 it is interesting for developers (the current

GNOME

developers, the wider GTK+ context, the free software context and
other developers specialized in non-free environments increasingly
interested in what we do). It is also interesting for distros, OEMs,
engineers involved in big deployments with intense/customized use of
GNOME,  power users and the specialized press.

Not the typical end user and probably not the average sysadmin

either,

since they are following the distros (if they do follow them).



Jorge, please note that I plan for us to use the Users,

Developers,

Administrators structure that we had in 2.14 here:
http://www.gnome.org/start/2.14/notes/en/
You seem to be doing almost that already in your draft.


I think this is a way to repeat the same mistakes every six months.
One page with the main flashes. There are not so many, we can create

a

good effect in a single shot but split the message in different

pages

(most of them with almost void content) is a waste of energy that
makes nobody happy.

--
Quim Gil /// http://desdeamericaconamor.org
--
marketing-list mailing list
marketing-list gnome org


http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list





--
Ken VanDine
http://ken.vandine.org




--
Quim Gil /// http://desdeamericaconamor.org




--
Ken VanDine
http://ken.vandine.org
--
marketing-list mailing list
marketing-list gnome org
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/marketing-list







-- 
Ken VanDine
http://ken.vandine.org
[Date Prev][Date Next]   [Thread Prev][Thread Next]   [Thread Index] [Date Index] [Author Index]