Re: [question to candidates] GNOME OS

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

On Wed, 2011-05-25 at 08:24 +0200, Frederic Peters wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> GNOME OS has been mentioned and questioned repeatedly in recent
> discussions on desktop-devel-list, about its definition itself[1],
> and the changing (or not?) role of the GNOME project with regards
> to distributions (based or not on the Linux kernel).
> 
> What are your thougths on this?[2] Do you think this is a foundation
> job to answer those questions? If not, is this a responsibility of the
> release team? Or something that is best left unanswered, as pieces are
> put into positions by different persons?
> 
I really think the GNOME OS idea is a very good one, that is, making
GNOME provide access to configuration and features of the underlying OS,
so that it is a complete desktop that can deal with everything the users
would ever need from a desktop.

But at the same time we have people from OSes other than Linux
interested in using GNOME, so I think we should take those into account,
even if their developers don't work on making GNOME work on those OSes
as actively as the Linux crowd. So, I think we should not be targetting
only Linux, but make the developer communities of those OSes more active
in GNOME. More people helping can just lead to a better GNOME.

As for who makes the decision, since it's a technical thing, it's up to
the release team/maintainers/future technical board (if any), but I
think the board should be really giving the message that any UNIX-based
OS is supported in GNOME, and make it easier for the developers of those
other kernels to provide their own versions of the Linux-only stuff used
in GNOME (by talking to them so that they get engaged in technical
discussions)

When Linux-only stuff is needed in GNOME, like systemd, I think, as
discussed in the thread, clear-defined interfaces should be provided so
that people from other kernels can easily implement what is needed.