(this post is the second of a serie presenting the Mandriva Linux project anew)
There is a multitude of ways of contributing to Mandriva whatever your technical level. And there’s no need to be a code wizard.
- Helping users
- Testing
- Brainstorming ideas
- Translating
- Writing & organizing documentation
- Animer Bugzilla
- Packaging
- Developing
- And…
Helping users
The first step is via the forums or the Expert community platform.
One of the principal factors in the choice of a distribution is the possibility of easily finding help to launch a new environment and of being assured of ongoing support. This participation is essential. Whatever the amount of time you have you can contribute.
- Forums: forum.mandriva.com
- Expert: expert.mandriva.com
And if you want to be involved in the forum activity you can join a team of moderators who assure the smooth running of the forums and welcome new members.
For those who prefer the mailing-lists, there is a wide range of activities from the beginner to the advanced user. Check lists.mandriva.com out!
Another group of busy contributors are the user associations or LUGs who provide invaluable help for beginners, sharing their experience, offering advice for the install party or through conferences. These associations are now grouped within the MUGs which offer help within territorial borders or between countries.
Tests
Tests are also an effective way of contributing to Mandriva Linux. The 6 months of development needed to bring out a new version are punctuated by periods when ISOs test images are made available. They are essential for ensuring we obtain the highest quality. The more tests we run the least chance we have of failing to detect critical bugs. A wide range of hardware platforms enables us to extend the scope of tests.
Download, install, test and get back to us with your proposals for improvements or report eventual bugs. If you are unable to install a development distribution, you can use One versions (live CD) which allow you to test the smooth running of major applications and your hardware support. Also available are virtualisation tools to test the latest version of a distribution.
Brainstorming ideas
Every user can now participate in building new Mandriva Linux versions by making suggestions for new applications, functionalities, improving existing applications… Ideas are welcome throughout the year but they will be especially considered during the period when specs for a new version are being put in place. The submission tool is overseen by Mandriva staffers and contributors.
Translating
Mandriva Linux is now offered in more than 70 languages.
And this is thanks to the work of the community who supply the translations. We all develop tools to allow them to be located and supply infrastructure so they can be integrated. You don’t have to be a specialist, you just have to join:
- http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Development/Tasks/Translating
- http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Translation_Teams
Writing & organizing documentation
Such a project requires an excellent documentation, for tools as well as for the final products, usages, how-tos, and for collaboration methods.
This huge task is accomplished on the Mandriva Linux Community Wiki, with no less than 16 idioms.
- wiki.mandriva.com/en
- Documentation portal (being reorganized at this time)
- How to write in this Wiki
Animating Bugzilla
Bugzilla is a central point for the distribution development, the site to report bugs and where one can find the record of the exchange of views between reporters and developers. It guarantees the current and future quality of the distribution.
But this tool is only effective through the daily intervention of a team dedicated to this link. Its tasks include:
- encouraging reporters to supply missing information by specifying the problem,
- relaunching the work on a bug when it is not going quickly enough,
- adjusting the priorities to put critical bugs at the top of the list,
- signalling important packages missing support,
- proposing test scenarios to reach a bug which can be easily used.
To join this team go to: http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Triage_Team_-_How_to_triage_bugs.
Packaging & maintaining packages
One of the major tasks is producing and supporting packages. Mandriva Linux offers more than 20,000 software packages thanks to the efforts of the community. If you would like to add a new application, improve or support a package, post your suggestion on the Cooker mailing-list. One of our packagers will take you under his wing until you receive your rights to become autonomous.
The cooker-chefs group debates monthly ways of improving the organisation and the life of the community of packagers.
Developing
All developments produced by Mandriva are open source available in the SVN and GIT servers. Whether they are tools integrated in the distribution, community web sites, or tools used for the contribution platform, you can check the source and, why not, offer your skills to improve it.
And…
What about your point of view? what other contribution means or actions to Mandriva Linux do you see, follow, that we may have forgotten?
Tags: brainstorming, bugzilla, community, developing, documentation, helping, Mandriva Linux, packaging, testing, translating
[...] From Planet !Mandriva: http://blog.mandriva.com/2009/10/16/101-contributing-to-mandriva-linux/ [...]
You know, I like Mandriva A LOT… However, when I submit a bug, it seems to get ignored or takes forever to do something about. I submitted a bug about Inkscape almost 5 months ago and other than acknowledging it’s there, nothing… I have to wait until the release of 2010 to get it fixed. Why? Couldn’t they have just reverted to the older package that wasn’t broken for us? Couldn’t they have packaged a preview of .47 to upgrade to that isn’t broken? Why should we have to wait a full 6 months for a broken app to get fixed, only to have to install the newest release to get it fixed?
You see, I’d be happy to help Mandriva. However, it’s this sort of thing that really ticks me off. It’s this lack of attention to the users that has always burned me about Mandriva. At least when Adam was around, we got responses and he’d look into things. Now, we don’t even get that.
I’ve tried to do my part and submit bugs, submit ideas to the ideas section for 2010, and I’ve even played around in Inkscape to make a little art for Mandriva (which I requested a special art section at open-desktop.org like the Ubuntu-art.org’ Suse-art.org, Debian-art.org, Arch-stuff.org, etc. sites) because that’s what my hobby is – vector art – and was planning on posting it somewhere. However, when is Mandriva gonna get more responsive to it’s community? Honestly, the relationship between Mandy and it’s community has long been a thorn in the side of the community.
Currently we are working on artwork side so that you can contribute ona kind of mandriva-look.org. Stay tuned
[...] http://blog.mandriva.com/2009/10/16/101-contributing-to-mandriva-linux/ [...]
I am in my third year with Linux and Mandriva.Having started with Mandrake 10.1 and now with Mandriva 2010 RC2 I have seen major improvements with the distro.Mandriva keeps the spirit of Linux and OpenSource alive.However,I still see some of the same bugs now that I did with my first install.I work around some and ignore others.I wish that I knew enough to fix them,but I have to rely upon the experts for that.
I’ve be with since Mandrake 8.0, and I am now using Mandriva 2008.0. (I will be upgrading to 2010 as soon as it is available.)
My major concern is the lag in updating to the most current version of specific programs. Often, I have had to resort to compiling from a tarball. Therein lies my major concern with Mandriva: its unorthodox placement of application files. Many applications use ‘usr/local/. . .’ (the standard locations) but Mandriva’s can be found anywhere but the standard location. It makes upgrading a buggy release application (such as Ardour 2.0.5) a major risk-undertaking. In the attempt to change the location of required libraries, I would probably end up with a very broken box.
Aside from that criticism, Mandriva is the best distro available, bar none — and I’ve tried almost all of them. The others lack that extra ‘polish’ — the blend of simplicity of layout and extraordinary functionality.
Good work!
As a graphic designer… Im Eagerly awaiting mandriva-look.org…
Hi,
I read the section on being a Mandriva publisher, thinking that it may be akin to being a Community Distributor of OpenOffice.org (which I am). I think that one of the best ways to increase the Mandriva user Base is to encourage Community Distribution. A classy Vector CD Label which did not use gallons of ink to print (scrap the solid colour backgrounds) should be made available in every release of Mandriva One, an Inkscape file would do it or else OpenOffice Draw. Then People who wanted to introduce their friends/ acquaintances/colleagues to this outstanding product, could provide them with something which looks professional. This beats the alternatives which are: the name of the distro scrawled in felt marker on the face of a CD, or whatever anyone comes up with (if they want to go to the trouble). A lonely yellow star, Tux and some black text is a whole lot better than a felt marker, but a well designed label would be much more impressive.
The wire frame gulls pattern on the earlier OpenOffice.org disks looked great and used little ink. The current label has solid colours and uses heaps of Ink. Very expensive if one wants to produce a lot of them.
On another topic, I would like to see the “default” install set up three partitions – / and /opt and /home (with a symlink from /usr/local to /opt) so that future upgrades for a basic user could leave their added programs intact. I am sure that this would lead to a much better “basic” install.
Andrew
Melbourne, Australia
Bom,
Primeiro, tornem o sítio de vocês acessível aos idiomas em geral, arranho no inglês e tenho muita dificuldade na comunicação.
Sei que exitem os fóruns, sou usuário Conectiva desde o 3.0 e sempre fui fiel (pelo menos à distro), assim que passei quase que automaticamente ao Mandriva quando da incorporação da menor pela maior.
O tema que ia mudando conforme o horário do dia. Aquilo era inovação, diferenciação entre as distros. Talvez alguns subprojetos mais específicos como MandrivaGames, MandrivaStudio, MandrivaOffice, faça frente às opções que estão aí. Sem dúvida o Mandriva é muito mais polido que qualquer distribuição recentemente criada e popularizada. Falta esse apelo. Fora o fato de pacontes RPM serem infinitamente melhores de se trabalhar que DEB.
Futuro promissor à Mandriva e ao Mandriva Linux.