Re: GNOME 2.20 release notes

["Diego Escalante Urrelo" <diegoe gnome org>]

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.
>

I'm in favour of this too, I never found the point of clicking next on
the release notes. Especially when we don't have that much visual
changes to argue that we would have a crowded single page.

>
> > > (*) 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).
>

I was convinced of the opposite until some weeks ago, I was thinking
as a GNOME groupie/contributor that wants to be on the bleeding edge
always. A good chunk of the users, the users that don't know what's
their desktops running simply don't care at all if GNOME 2.8 is years
old, if it works and they don't have big problems they are happy and
_they don't care_ (that much).

>
> > 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.
>

We could -maybe- point to an in-detail page, that way we can have all
the bling on the main release notes page and put other less important
stuff in a "read more" type of link.

But to summarize, I'm with Quim on the one-page-bling idea.

Diego