Re: GNOME Feature Proposal: Backup

[Michael Terry <mike mterry name>]

On 13 May 2011 13:01, Allan Day <allanpday gmail com> wrote:
> There are good reasons for wanting to have Deja Dup on GNOME Bugzilla, I
> think. I can imagine myself wanting to CC other GNOME contributors on
> Deja Dup bugs. I can also imagine bugs being punted between Deja Dup and
> other GNOME modules. Plus there's the whole release planning and GNOME
> QA effort to consider.
>
> Don't forget that there's a high chance that people will fix Deja Dup
> bugs for you if you're on GNOME Bugzilla. :)

(Note that I write here with love and without heat.  I'm a GNOME
developer and user and I want the world to be a better place.)

I guess I was hoping more for collaboration than assimilation.  :)

Note that I am willing to, over time, train a new maintainer from
within GNOME who could take over the project while I continue to
contribute (which is more fun than maintaining).  But I suspect there
wouldn't be takers.  If there would be, GNOME would likely already
have a backup story or I would already see existing GNOME contributors
to DD.  You could call this the "if you had invented Facebook you
would be Facebook" argument.

I would also freely consult on how to fork part of DD or how to write
a new backup program if GNOME really wanted to.

Point is, I am largely just interested in the world not senselessly
losing data (arguably the most preventable common point of pain with
computers) regardless of who does it.

So while I'm so willing to collaborate in that way, if I'm doing the
work, I'd like to use the tools that make sense to me.  Especially
since I think it's so easy to collaborate between our tools.  Granted,
it's a bit harder than you'd ideally like.  But I'm willing to meet
you halfway (mailing list, mirrors, etc).

Secondly, DD is already an app that has the stamp of approval for
being featured in GNOME marketing last I checked.  So GNOME can today
talk about it's amazing backup story.

So what does being a "core" module/Feature really buy here?  (I mean,
benefits above and beyond the goodness of being on GNOME
infrastructure, which I could have without being a core module.)  I
see the following, but I may have missed something:

 * DD gets the slightly increased integration of being in the panel vs
a window (really, not a large distinction in the grand scheme).

 * A formal agreement within GNOME that developers should be paying
attention to the module.  Though note that DD would love attention
regardless of core status! :).

 * A bit of a social thing by declaring which "camp" DD is aligned with.

Is it a policy requirement that Features be core modules?

-mt