random thoughts on development strategy

[Peter Damoc]

I don't know if this has been suggested before BUT it might be a good idea to encourage universities to adopt Ubuntu or better said to adopt parts of Ubuntu... A lot of them already use linux but very few actually contribute code.

Another idea is to create developer vacuum... A lot of people could contribute but they don't know what they can do, how they can help, most consider themselves to unexperienced to mess with some random app and prefer to leave that to the "experts". An exhaustive TODO list with "requirements" attached could prove very helpful. like in:

TODO: Proofreading new documentation to feature X
Requirements: English

TODO: Fix Layout to Open Dialog in RandomApp so that it conforms to HIG 2.0
Requirements: python/pyGTK , HIG 2.0 knowledge

This way Joe Random User Wannabe Developer could say "Hey... I can do that!" As I said... vacuum... something to attract the future developers.

Of course bounties could be attached to these TODOs to make them more incentive.

It is a great satisfaction to be part of a software project, even if your contribution is just a small fix that everybody could have done it in 15 minutes. Also there are a lot of young brilliant people that could use such a system to become the UberGeek of their neighbourhood.

Another issue is i18n ... translating an entire system is one huge task that might seam unsurmountable. Maybe there could be compiled some previous experience with this... cooked a strategy... a path... sweeten the pill because in my view it is a pill, it is something necessary that none wants,  maybe one big table with links to the software and current status for each part. There are a lot of distros that are just recompilations of a classic with better support for some language... maybe Ubuntu can attract some of the enthusiasts behind such distros like it did with the developer of Gnoppix.


-- 
Peter Damoc
Hacker Wannabe
http://www.sigmacore.net/