[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Non programming tasks
This is the planned page for non programmers. I have put RPM building
and Sysadmin work in it who is perhaps not a great idea. Perhaps we
should call it 'non technical tasks' and put sysadmin and RPM building
on the programming tasks who who would then called 'technical tasks'.
Opinions?
=============================== BEGIN =============================
<HTML>
<HEADER>
<Title> Tasks for non programmers</Title>
</HEADER>
<BODY>
<H1>Now is the hour for every good man...<H1>
...and woman to do something for Independence, Linux and those Linux
users who are presently abandonned to their fate.
<br>
Here are some tasks who <bd>you</bd> could take charge even if you are
not a programmer.
<ol>
<li><H3>Propaganda and PR</H3>
<p>The amount of what Independence will be able to do depends on how
many people will work on it. A propagandist could improve the texts
where Independence goals are described, write on magazines or speak
about Independence on mail lists with similar goals to ours. This
could have a significant influence on the number of Independence's
developpers. He could also contribute to increase the number of its
users and in Indy's influence contributing to make other distributions
paying more attention to users they presently ignore.</p>
<li><H3>Web desgin</H3>
<p>This is also a crucial position for Indy's impact and would have to
be done in conjunction with the propaganda team as well as the
developpers. We frown on HTML written with Wysywyg tools as such
tends to be bad and prone to break as soon as a page is moved.
</p>
<li><H3>Organization</H3>
<p>This is something I am a complete disaster for it. Managing
people, setting a CVS if needed, ensuring we are mirrorred not only
would be better done than by me but would allow me to concentrate on
other tasks</p>
<li><H3>RPM building or maintenance</H3>
<p>Building RPMS is not particularly difficult and is mostly a task of
recompiling the software and listing the files it installs plus
writing 10 lines install scripts. However at Indy we strive for
building RPMS who make the program as plug and play as possible and
have definite ideas about where the installed files should go.</p>
<p>If you are unexperienced at RPM-building you could still
maintain some of them. Most of Indy's RPMS are clean in that sense
that when building they won't pollute your file system and don't need
you being root for building them. That means that if the original
source didn't need patches for Indy then the only thing you have to do
is download the new version of the software, change the version number
in the spec file you got with the old SRPM and then "rpm -ba
myspecfile". Easy isn't it? But you would relieve some burden from
other people.</p>
<li><H3>Software selection</H3>
<p>We strongly believe that an intelligent software selection is
the most important factor for making Linux easy and useful. If
you know a program who is better than its equivalent in Indy just tell
us. If you know a program who has no equivalent in Indy and covers a
need you think important then tell us.</p>
<p>We are interested by games, programs for real life (eg managing a
check book), internetting in dial up sites, improving integration in
companies who use Windows or Macs, easying system administration,
Wysywyg word processors and software for graphics or music creation .
We also would like to give a little push to the amount of software
available for Linux in those areas we think important for Linux
future: games, office applications, end user software/ So we would
like to provide visual programming tools to programmers coming from
Windows and of course we would like to include Crystal Space or a
similar game design engine in order to help increase the number of
games available for Linux.</p>
<p>Independence being a free project it cannot ship commercial
software. We also shun software who is crippled until you have paid
the license but we accept software where the N-1 version is free and
the N version is not (eg ghostscript). Software who is free only for
personal use is something we accept... if there is no alternative.
Finally a program who can only distributed without fee is a no-no-no
in Independence: a CDROM is usually far less expensive than
downloading from the net for those people with expensive net access
and these are usually poorer than those people who can download for
free from university or from their work.
</p>
<li><H3>Translating</H3>
<p>Some parts of the installation refer to RedHat and we have the
legal obligation to change these references. In addition they mention
commercial features like privileged ftp sites we cannot provide. That
means we have to fix those texts in order to avoid legal problems
related to "lies in advertisements" and that means that if we cannot
write in a language we will drop support for it. So if you want Indy
support your national language then learn about <em>xgettext</em> and
help us with tranlastions. In addition we would also like people
tranalating manuals for some application software we esteem
important</p>
<li><H3>Writing doc<H3>
<p>Including great software or having nice features in the
distribution isn't that useful if people don't know about it in the
first place. Documenting Indy is a task as important as any. If you
are a good writer this is a task for you.
</p>
<li><H3>Testing<H3>
<p>Sometimes a program who looks great on its home site will fail
miserably when used for real and we don't want to ship lemons.
Sometimes a program is broken due to Indy's people making a
substandard package or there is a part in the installtion proper we
were unable to try. We really need people testing both our work and
the sofware we include for us being able to improve Indy.<p>
<li><H3>Distribution snooping</H3>
<p>Try other ditributions and write motivated analysis of them
attracting attention towards those features you would like to have in
Indy. It would be really nice to have a distribution making a
synthesis of what is available in Linux world.
</p>
<li><H3>Guru work</H3>
<p>Having good examples of configurations for situations similar to
the one the user is facing can do wonders for easying the
configurataion tasks. Unfortunately for many programs those examples
are either missing or unadequate. If you are an expert at system
administration this can be job for you.
</p>
</ol>
<H2>Things will not just happen...</H2>
<p>...if people dont work on them. A small team will be unable to have
Indy making significant progress. If you are tired of getting
distributions who don't pay attention to your problems, if you want to
help in making a distribution made for the people, if you think Linux
is a good thing who should be available for everyone instead of a
minority then <HREF Joining page>
</p>
</BODY>
</HTML>
===================================== END ========================