Bodhi Linux Arch-based build, need dev(s) and supporting team members

Question

Hello forum,
     First, apologies if I have posted this topic in the wrong thread. I am writing to inquire as to whether or not there are any other Arch users and/or developers that would be interested in assisting Jeff Hoogland with his new distro, Bodhi Linux, and working on an Arch-based build. Bodhi Linux is a Ubuntu-based distribution that uses Enlightenment as the desktop environment and is focused on promoting the light weight, beauty, and speed of Enlightenment while remaining minimalist. Jeff has plans to release a Fedora-based version of Bodhi in the future, as well as an Arch-based build, but he would need some help, specifically with the OS disc itself. He can work on the Enlightenment side of things. Is there anyone interested in working on such a project? If you haven't heard of Bodhi Linux already, please visit http://bodhilinux.com/

Answer 1

Greg_S. wrote:ANOKNUSA, you think it's wasted energy? "Throw-away distro" is it?
Sorry if this seems unduly harsh.  I wasn't trying to troll, but merely reiterating what others here have said.  The Bodhi Linux developers are certainly within their right to direct their efforts in any way they wish.  However, they have two serious conceptual flaws they need to consider and overcome:
1)  Are the devs planning on releasing both x86 and AMD64 versions of Bodhi?  Even if not, this still means that once the project gets going, they'll need to build the entire E17 compilation three times a week; if so, they'll need to do so six times a week.  This is very tedious and time-consuming for a group of people working in their spare time, with no financial backing or chance for compensation.  Naturally, it leaves very little time to maintain the rest of the repos, discuss/research/pursue further development, track bug reports, etc.  The latter is worth noting, since
2)  The devs will need to keep track of bugs and development roadmaps for three different distros, each with their own kernel patches, boot/init protocols, etc.  They'll need to build separate packages and "tune" separate repos for each spin, provide a forum(s) able to handle questions regarding each spin, with devs and moderators specializing in each spin.
This is an awful lot of work to simply "showcase E17 and give it the 'love' it deserves."  The Enlightenment devs are the ones providing the weekly snapshots on SVN; the Bodhi devs just package them.  If promotion of Enlightenment DR17 is the ultimate goal, it could be better accomplished by establishing and promoting a PPA for Ubuntu, a PKGBUILD or PUR for Arch, and a (name of unofficial repo here) for Fedora.  This would make an up-to-date version of E17 readily available, and require only promotion and packaging on the part of the maintainers.  Bug reports could be sent directly to the Enlightenment folks with no need for an intermediary, as well as to the appropriate distro, rather than sending them to Bodhi which must then check to see if the problem is one extant in the base distro concerned before applying efforts to fix the problem.  Just think: you get a bug report and begin to reseach it, only to find out it's a problem you inherited from Ubuntu which in turn inherited it From Debian [unstable].  Where does that leave you?  If you do manage to fix the problem, then the only decent thing to do would be to share whatever patch/code changes you made with the folks upstream anyway.
I ain't trying to be a killjoy here, and I'm definitely not trying to discourage the commitment and spirit of contribution the Bodhi folks obviously have; just the opposite.  Besides, it does look like you found at least one Archer willing to help you guys, so whatever ends up happening, I wish you all good luck with it.