Re: draft GNOME 2.10 press release

[Luis Villa <luis villa gmail com>]

On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 19:33:59 +0100, Murray Cumming <murrayc murrayc com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-02-23 at 12:48 -0500, Luis Villa wrote:
> > FYI to everyone, I'm currently completing a new draft of the release,
> > what I have is attached. Murray, I've taken your framework and rebuilt
> > it quite a bit, I hope I'm not trampling on your toes too much.
> 
> No problem. It seems good. Would you like to take over responsibility
> for the press release? I'm a lazy delegater.

Would be my pleasure. If you've had any info from Leslie or others
about distributing it, and any details on the translation ideas, let
me know off-list.

> Some of the awkwardness of the quotes results from trying to squeeze
> everyone's points into them. I still kind of like "worked hard so you
> don't have to", because it gets 2 ideas into few words.

It still seemed awkward to me. I'll look at it again after dinner.

> Straightforward writing interests me personally, so I'd replace, for
> instance, "continues to improve" with "improves", "continues to
> demonstrate" with "shows", and "helping make" with "makes", "distracting
> or confusing" with "confusing", "that have been added" with "added",
> etc. It's the principle of less words is better. I'd also avoid words
> like "power" where they have no obvious meaning.

Sure, I can try to clean that up a bit, and I'll also run it by
Christine McLellan (Novell pm-y type who hangs out in #gnome-hackers)
for her suggestions on the wording.

> The autodetection of "servers" on local networks is
> - gnomemeeting detects other gnomemeeting users.
> - Some games detect networked players

Cool. I'd love to think about distributing some talking points behind
these so that GNOME folks can give concrete examples if asked-
anything think that is a good or bad idea?
 
> By the way, I don't mind adding .doc exports for the disadvantaged, but
> let's not use it as a primary format.

Oh, of course, I'm just having OOo 2.0<->1.1 problems, so until I
straighten those out, or until everyone decides to upgrade to OOo
1.9.74 or whatever it is (which I figure is unlikely) I just needed
/something/ to get it out. I'll try to do that tonight.

Luis

> >
> > Some notes on John's comments:
> >
> > On Wed, 23 Feb 2005 09:47:51 +1300, John Williams
> > <JWilliams business otago ac nz> wrote:
> > > "The GNOME architects have worked hard for the past six months, so you
> > > don't have to, fixing over 1200 reported bugs"
> > >
> > > Should be replaced with
> > >
> > > "The GNOME architects have worked hard for GNOME users over the past six
> > > months, fixing over 1200 reported bugs"
> > >
> > > (I suspect that is a made-up quote, i.e. Elijah didn't actually say
> > > that)
> >
> > It is just generally so awkward that I dropped it altogether, and put:
> >
> > "* Continued polish and stability work. GNOME 2.10 will include
> > literally thousands of bug fixes and usability improvements that have
> > been added since GNOME 2.8 was released in September."
> >
> > in a revamped 'feature' list. The entire list in my draft is at the
> > end of this email.
> >
> > > Add to:
> > >
> > > GNOME makes stable releases every six months according to a reliable
> > > schedule, allowing ISVs and distributors to plan their own products with
> > > confidence.
> > >
> > > With:
> > >
> > > Planning and development of GNOME is conducted in publicly available
> > > electronic forums, such as open email lists, WWW pages and IRC channels.
> >
> > Hrm. I like this, but it just seems awkward in the context of the
> > press release. Maybe in the 'About GNOME' section? My current
> > paragraph on release goes like this:
> >
> > "In keeping with GNOME's 'users first' philosophy, GNOME makes stable
> > releases every six months, which gets improvements to users rapidly,
> > and allows ISVs and distributors to plan their GNOME-based products
> > with confidence. As a result of this predictability, leading
> > distributions like Fedora, SUSE, and Ubuntu have planned to include
> > GNOME 2.10 in the next release of their products, getting GNOME out to
> > millions of users."
> >
> > > Replace:
> > >
> > > "GNOME 2.10's enhancements and attention to detail total to an even
> > > better user experience", said Owen Taylor, GNOME Foundation chairperson.
> > > "The addition of multimedia applications complements that."
> > >
> > > With
> > >
> > > "GNOME 2.10's enhancements and attention to detail deliver an even
> > > better user experience", said Owen Taylor, GNOME Foundation chairperson.
> > > "The addition of multimedia applications showcases that."
> >
> > I'd like to drop this completely in favor of one/both of the quotes
> > appended at the end of this email.
> >
> > > ------------------------------------
> > > Replace:
> > >
> > > The software includes the GNOME 2.10 desktop interface, file manager,
> > > menus and utilities, as well as the complete set of development tools
> > > and libraries.
> > >
> > > With:
> > >
> > > The software includes the GNOME 2.10 desktop interface, file manager,
> > > applications and utilities, as well as the complete set of development
> > > tools and libraries.
> >
> > Done. Current availability section from my draft:
> >
> > "Availability
> > GNOME 2.10 will soon be available as part of most popular Linux
> > distributions. For those who can't wait, the new GNOME LiveCD
> > (available from www.gnome.org/start/2.10/) will allow users and other
> > interested parties to test the latest GNOME desktop by burning a CD
> > and rebooting- no installation necessary. It is a great way to get a
> > view of the latest and greatest in the Linux desktop, not just GNOME.
> >
> > Developers and advanced users wishing to install the GNOME 2.10
> > Desktop and Developer Platform now may freely download the software at
> > www.gnome.org.  The software includes the source code for the GNOME
> > 2.10 desktop interface, file manager, applications and utilities, as
> > well as a complete set of development tools and libraries."
> >
> > > ------------------------------------
> > > The "About GNOME" section really, really needs some information on
> > > adoption.  An estimate of the number of users, and a few major corporate
> > > and governmental installations, would help tremendously.
> > >
> > > I know estimating users is hard.  Most vendors seem to use number of
> > > downloads as a proxy.  Can we do this?
> >
> > If we counted only number of downloads, we'd be hosed- the vast
> > majority of our end-users wouldn't and shouldn't know how to download
> > an entire desktop :)
> >
> > > Hope this helps
> >
> > thanks a ton, John.
> >
> > My current feature list:
> >
> > "Key features users can look forward to:
> > * An integrated video player, one-click CD 'ripping', and improved
> > media format support, helping make the Linux desktop's multimedia
> > support more competitive with the leading proprietary operating
> > systems.
> > * More auto-detection of hardware and servers [FIXME: servers? what is
> > the example here?], continuing to demonstrate GNOME's focus on
> > software that 'Just Works' without distracting or confusing users.
> > * Better integration between applications, including improved links
> > between GNOME apps [FIXME: what are the examples here?] and new
> > implementations of cross-platform standards that improve both the user
> > and ISV experience.
> > * The release of version 1.0 of the GNOME Onscreen Keyboard (gok),
> > marking a major milestone for the accessibility of the free software
> > desktop.
> > * Continued polish and stability work. GNOME 2.10 will include
> > literally thousands of bug fixes and usability improvements that have
> > been added since GNOME 2.8 was released in September."
> >
> > I have two quotes I've got in, one unsourced ATM:
> >
> > "This GNOME release is exciting. Not only is GNOME continuing to fix
> > problems for end users, but by working with other free software
> > communities like freedesktop.org, GStreamer, ans GTK, all of which
> > have improvements demonstrated in this release, GNOME is helping drive
> > forward the entire Free Software desktop." I'm thinking it would be
> > great to source this from Jim, Keith, one of the fluendo guys, or
> > (dream world) someone from GuadaLinux or Linex.
> >
> > "We're putting our money where our mouth is", said Luis Villa, GNOME
> > Foundation Board member. "Instead of talking about vaporware that
> > users and ISVs may or may not see in 2005, or 2006, or 2007, GNOME's
> > regular release process is getting visible improvements to users twice
> > a year, something no proprietary desktop vendor matches."
> >
> > Sort of aggressive but I like it ;)
> >
> > Note on the attachment: it is .doc because I opened it in OOo 2.0,
> > which (mind-blowingly) seems to export .sxws which OOo 1.1 can't read.
> > Abi seems to have problems importing the exported version,
> > unfortunately. Yargh. Attaching several versions....
> >
> > Luis
> --
> Murray Cumming
> murrayc murrayc com
> www.murrayc.com
> www.openismus.com
> 
>