QA in Gentoo, and Microsoft vs. Linux

Diego,

I’m totally agree with you on the matter. I was actually talking with Patrick about QA awhile ago, and if you hold the same stance as he does on the matter – that is great. I think one should take apart the 2 definitions about application quality: the one is being made with high quality, and the second is being working stable as specified.

The first one is regarded in software as “code style policies” and such, which means the rules and choices made when creating products (such as variables/function names, code styles, etc). It is sometimes even implemented by using automated tools for creating skeletons in code, and running automatic parsers to check the usage.

On the other hand, Quality Assurance means testing created products for bugs, features and stability, and generally speaking has nothing to do with coding policies – as long as product is stable and performs as expected.

So for Gentoo, I would believe that the main things that QA team should always check, are the following:

1. Package can be built.
2. The result can be ran/executed/used.

If 1. doesn’t pass in at least some 50%, package cannot be unmasked or even added to the tree.

When 1. is OK, and 2. is almost OK (say, it runs but some problems exist), package can be marked ~.

I only believe there are 2 cases when package can be marked stable:
1. The 1. above has near 100% positive result for all the deps.
2. The 2. from the above is considered positive, when tested by multiple users for given period of time (say at least a week) and no problems are being reported.

Thats the way I think QA issues should be handled in Gentoo.

Regarding your resignation – although I’m sure it is a lost for the official Gentoo, I hope you still stick around and help to people in need. I also believe that everyone is free community is entitled to personal wishes, and if you want to resign – its your right to do so, I don’t understand why people bother you to explain yourself (like you own them or something.)

Now, to the Microsoft vs. Linux issue.

As Daniel de Oliveira already mentioned, Microsoft has created a new site, (currently down by the way), where they explain their potential partners and salesforce, how to win the sales case against Linux offerings.

I personally think it is important, because it is not blatant “Get The Facts” campain. It is a very business-case oriented, detailed and organized guide to winning businesses.

You do such guides only when you consider your opponent very serious contender, and that requires you to concentrate on important stuff. It also means, that Linux (I mean OS here, not just kernel), is considered by Microsoft very serious, and its not “only for ….. people anymore” (fill the blanks on your own; may I suggest “supergeeks”?).

So, I’d say that Ubuntu bug #1 set by Mark Shuttleworth, is being slowly but surely resolved.

Wouldn’t you ?!

My week with Gentoo and other stuff

Well, it’s kinda a day for my weekly stuff.

In fact, I haven’t see much of going on with Gentoo, this week was pretty calm. So few things then:

Non gentoo:

1. I’m twice an uncle now. My sis gave birth to another baby boy last friday, exactly one year after a previous one. So its kinda funny thing in a family now, we still laughing. But it is weird though.
2. Yet another “Is Linux ready for the desktop” type of article. I don’t think we’ll ever get rid of those. To the date, I think linux is just another OS, which gives you the choice. Because of the kind of a user I am, I do think Linux is better than anything else, because almost everything I do with computers, is either multiplatform (Java-Mono-.Net-Flash, and please don’t flame on this – they all the same to me), webbased (gmail) or Linux/Unix oriented (shells, cli’s of sorts, etc). Linux is great platform for that.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying that Windows is bad, but for the god’s sake, why would maximizing Outlook from system tray to a full or opening a “new mail” window takes 15-20 seconds on pretty idle system?

3. I’ve read an article about OLPC project efforts, and man, I want to work for something like that.

Isn’t it great project? I’d quit my current job in an instant if job like that would come up. It’s not the money thing, its pure interest and excitement drive – I like challenges and, more important, seeing the result almost immediately of what you did. I already have ideas for what can be done with this kind of laptops, and it doesn’t even exist yet!! That alone should show how bored I am at my current job.

Gentoo-related:

1. Userreps are little slow lately because they are busy, but don’t let it stop you. If you have anything interesting or important to say, suggest or ask, do it on User Representatives Subforum or drop by #gentoo-userreps channel on FreeNode irc network.
2. Last council meeting logs were published. One thing I noticed, is that Bryan (kloeri) will review Devrel etiquette guide, because the current one has some ambiguities. I did suggest few things for that and it would make me really happy if some of my suggestions would find a way in final document. That would be great.
3. XMMS voes (part 4) – “it ain’t over until I say its over”? This subject seem to affect so many people, that many cannot leave it in peace. So, in an effort to help all of those, User Representative kopp (and developers nattfodd, amne, metalgod, nixnut, and if I forgot someone – correct me) has prepared an explanatory article about an issue. Use it to solve your problems and I hope it will be the end of it.
4. “Automatic Tools” department (if I’m starting to resemble John. C. Dvorak here – sorry) – this time its about automatic deletion of an old packages (or rather, their distfiles).
   My stake on this, is that yes, there are unneeded files on you system that take considerable amount of space, and I understand that some people never heard of eclean. But this cannot be the reason to create automatic tools to do so either. As some haven’t heard of eclean, what makes one think that people will know about settings in /etc/make.conf for distcleaning? Isn’t this the same concept? Besides, you obviously can’t delete the files automatically, so you’d default to option in /etc/make.conf, which will not even be set in that file, but in some else, probably in profile/ somewhere. How is that different from eclean? It just means integrating eclean into Portage, not as stand alone package.And if eclean is not good enough, maybe it should be enhanced.

I just don’t understand why every time the existing tool doesn’t do exactly what one needs, the suggestion for “automatic tools” appear. IMHO, its not always the best way.

Well, thats it for this week. Feedbacks are appreciated (I am usually having them for lunch) and if I missed something (or forgot to mention someone I should’ve) just let me know and this unfortunate mistake will (supposedly) be corrected.