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List: kde-promo
Subject: [kde-promo] nepomuk / baloo naming implications
From: "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date: 2014-02-19 1:04:51
Message-ID: 1758539.0SZlSc6UKd () freedom
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hi...
as the other thread is a bit spread out in terms of topoic, i thought i'd
start afresh and try to collect the implications in one exhaustive list \
(it's long .. sorry :/)
== This is a journey ==
This will take a long time to communicate, no matter what happens: name \
change or not. I expect 6 months of consistent messaging is a bare \
minimum, and it will likely take longer. This is not a one-time \
communication question, but something that sets the tone for a 6 month \
trek, and which will easily have implications for the next 3+ years.
== Established investment nepomuk ==
While we've tried to keep Nepomuk out of the default UI as much as \
possible, it still shows up in places. It is also required for \
troubleshooting, and as such exists on our support wikis. We have \
recognized visual identity components (the nepomuk logo icon) that have \
been more or less visible in Plasma for some time.
Being able to attach the "bigger, better, faster" story of Baloo to Nepomuk \
is an easier story to tell than having to explain why Baloo replaces \
Nepomuk. It also allows us to preserve the above investments already made.
== Existing "common knowledge" of what Nepomuk is ==
The core Free software user community knows what Nepomuk is and does: file
indexing and desktop search. This is not actually accurate, but it is the
prevailing common understanding of it since that is what people have
experienced with it. Usage by Akonadi or Plasma Active is not well known; \
some even confuse KRunner with Nepomuk since they use KRunner to search \
for things (!)
IOW, people have a vague understanding of what Nepomuk does. If the details \
under the hood change, it really doesn't matter. Risk of confusion because \
the implementation details change but the name stays the same, therefore, \
is low.
We benefit by not having to re-explain what it is Nepomuk did and Baloo \
does now. In fact, as Carl pointed out: it is really hard to introduce \
Baloo without talking about Nepomuk .. which says a lot.
== API change ==
Some have noted that there has been significant API changes. This is true \
.. except for the widgets. Keeping the name makes that part of the story \
easier to communicate, so the question is whether it is significantly \
easier to communicate an API change with a new name.
If we look at things like Perl 6, Python 3 or Qt4 (or Qt2), or frameworks \
like node.js as it evolved: API changes are part of life. Developers \
choose a framework based on what it does ("does this open zip files? \
‘cause I need to open zip files"), maturity, commitment by the team \
behind it and quality.
Given people know what Nepomuk does, keeping the name is a win there.
Maturity and commitment are implied by continuity. Changing names and \
saying "this is essentially a brand new project" doesn't help there, even \
if the new thing is awesome. Compare the struggles of Linux middleware \
that has changed names repeatedly to something like NetworkManager which \
has kept its name even though its API keeps changing from release to \
release rather significantly. Since it's the same name but just "keeps \
getting better" it avoids much of the controversy that other API-shifting \
areas of Linux middleware have endured (fairly or not).
The quality issue is the big remaining issue ... but not limited to API
== The Quality Hump ==
This is an issue from both the end user and developer perspective.
Nepomuk has a relatively poor reputation (fairly or not). Keeping the name
"Nepomuk" therefore carries some of this negativity. In the "keep the name" \
situation we then have the job of making the case for why/how the current \
work has improved .. well .. anything.
If we change the name, we need to still explain why/how the current work \
has improved anything. We also need to explain why Nepomuk was entirely \
abandoned. Which also implies "why we stuck with it for so long even \
though it needs abandoning".
So changing the name doesn't save us much work at all; it may even create
*more* work. The current article has an entire section called "Why change
Nepomuk?" That entire section can pretty much be scrapped if the name is \
kept. It can be recycled into a "how this new version is better" and \
merged with the content currently under "About Baloo"
== Deprecation story ==
Saying "The Nepomuk project is officially deprecated" is pretty harsh \
sounding. It leaves an immediate question: 'what to move to if I'm using \
Nepomuk now?' On the other hand, people are quite used to old versions \
being deprecated (that's almost axiomatic). Keeping the name makes the \
migration path a lot more obvious while sounding a lot less like we're \
abandoning things and more like we're evolving things.
== Migration Story ==
Keeping the name also softens the migration story. Compare:
"Nepomuk and Baloo can coexist without issues. However, it is not optimal \
to run both of them on the same system. They both would be indexing files, \
emails and other data, duplicating functions, taxing the system \
unnecessarily, populating and synchronizing their databases."
with:
"Nepomuk 1 and 2 can coexist without issues, however it is not recommended \
to run both on the same system. Doing so would result in indexing all \
files, emails and other data twice, duplicating functions and taxing the \
system unnecessarily due to populating and synchronizing two separate \
databases."
or
"KDE Applications and Platform 4.13 will not ship with Nepomuk based search \
integrated. Nepomuk will still be available for distributions to ship as a \
separate component, but it is recommended that users who depend on
applications requiring the old version of Nepomuk to hold off upgrading to
Platform 4.13 until these applications have been ported. Linux \
distributions will most likely take care of this, ensuring that if any \
component needs Nepomuk it will be installed and otherwise, Baloo will be \
providing the search and storage capabilities."
with
"KDE Platform 4.13 will ship with Nepomuk 2 integration only. Likewise, KDE \
Applications 4.13 has also been upgraded to use Nepomuk 2 exclusively. \
This covers the majority of Nepomuk applications most people use. However, \
those relying on applications which have not yet been ported to Nepomuk 2 \
are strongly recommended to stay with KDE Platform 4.12 until those \
applications are ported."
It sounds more like migration and upgrade than an awkward replacement.
== Research participation story ==
Up until now we've been able to say "Yes, we have benefited from engaging
productively in public research projects like Nepomuk in the EU." That has
gotten us quite a bit of kudos over the years.
If we keep the name, we can demonstrate continuity from that investment and \
chart from KDE's past efforts in it to where we are now. Yes, it evolved, \
but it started with that research endeavor brought into KDE. If we toss \
the name, here's what we end up with something like this:
"We engaged in a EU research project called Nepomuk. It needed significant
improvements to reach the level of performance we required, so eventeually \
we replaced it with something called 'Baloo' which has a higher \
performance file indexer as well as a more focused API better for what \
applications actually needed. Some of the people who worked on Nepomuk \
also wrote Baloo, so Nepomuk was a valuable part of the path to our \
current solution."
That's really, really weak for trying to present our research involvement \
and the value of tossing resources at KDE projects. If we keep the name, \
this same story becomes:
"We engaged in a EU research project called Nepomuk. Even after the \
research project ended, we continued to invest in it and evolve the \
framework. Today we have Nepomuk <N> which has a higher performance file \
indexer as well as a more focused API that is better suited to what \
desktop applications actually needed. In this manner, we took the research \
project and turned it into a production product."
It is really hard to make that same story when the names are changing,
particularly in front of people who hand out research grants.
== Possible post-baloo name churn ==
From the "pessimists" department: *if* Baloo were not to work out as we \
want and ends up being replaced / augmented with something else in the \
next years, we'll have this whole name change issue all over again .. and \
then it would be 3 name changes for the same thing.
(Which reminds me of Kat and Tenor :)
This will lead to KDE looking like it can't figure out what it is doing ... \
sort of like the Linux middleware name churn which certainly hasn't helped \
their cause in getting people to adopt new iterations without screaming \
bloody murder (and forking in some cases)
--
Aaron J. Seigo
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