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List:       gentoo-dev
Subject:    Re: [gentoo-dev] DistroWatch and Gentoo packages: status quo and future
From:       Richard Freeman <rich0 () gentoo ! org>
Date:       2009-09-13 10:47:27
Message-ID: 4AACCDBF.5020207 () gentoo ! org
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Jesús Guerrero wrote:
> 
> Most Gentoo users will have no problem to use overlays as they need
> them. If we had more developers we could as maintain more packages,
> as simple as that.
> 

I actually tend to agree with this position, however to use overlays as 
a valid solution for end-users we need to do more to support them. 
Right now it is at least a little painful to get set up with an overlay. 
  There also isn't really any official place to vet overlays, and there 
isn't any official source for overlays that aren't maintained by gentoo.

Sure, overlays.g.o has tons of overlays - but which ones are 
mostly-stable, and which ones are intended to break systems?  What is 
the QA policy for each overlay?  If I'm an end-user not interested in 
breaking my system, what overlays are safe for me to use?

If we really want overlays to be an outlet to allow more non-devs to 
contribute, then there needs to be some way to standardize them.  Maybe 
a simple ratings system - an overlay needs to comply with one set of 
rules just to get listed on o.g.o.  If you want to be marked as stable, 
then you obey some additional rules.  And so on...

Then we can have overlays of various types for various purposes, and 
users can pick which ones they want to follow.  We could also have 
things like overlay groups - like "stable" or "desktop" or "KDE" / etc.

Maybe a fancy GUI to allow users to configure all of this.

Of course, for this to work somebody needs to develop it.  If somebody 
were willing to do the work I doubt anybody would get in their way.  It 
isn't like any of this would interfere with anybody who just wanted to 
make their own overlay without rules and not have it listed on some 
official site.

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