Posts Tagged ‘Mandriva Linux’

102: taking part in Mandriva Linux

Friday, October 16th, 2009

(this is the third in a series of reports outlining the Mandriva Linux project and ways of taking part)

In addition to the different ways of taking part we have already gone over, another path is through a financial contribution.

We have within Mandriva two core activities, with a common goal, but whose revenues come from entirely different sources:

For the commercial versions, we follow the traditional revenue flow generated by product, service and by-product sales.

Our free distribution activity, while depending to a degree on commercial version sales, is structured on a business plan which could be remodeled. We believe the success of Mandriva Linux is due to the quality and innovation of its integrated Open Source projects. Accordingly, we feel it is appropriate to recognise and aid these projects.

The distribution responds to a wide public, from beginners to advanced users.

To resolve this quandary we offer the possibility of financially contributing to our component projects. Funds would be used to strengthen both infrastructure and those projects essential to Mandriva Linux, needed by the free community, developers and contributors.

We have always sought, through good years and bad, to uphold the transparency of our relationship with the community of contributors – staffers and contributors work hand in hand. We have reinforced this relationship with the Assembly where each group (staffers, contributors and users) is represented.

We wish to preserve this model which has the virtue of clarifying the work carried out jointly and gathers the dedicated funds for the distribution base and the infrastructure.

There is no question of reviving the Club: any contribution would go directly to funding projects whose output is already and would always be freely available for all.

In any case we shall publish a monthly report to start with, then quarterly, outlining the sharing out of funds. If you would like to contribute, start here.

This closes the series of messages outlining our activity as a Linux system publisher in collaboration with our community.

We shall shortly explore another branch of our activity: the range of commercial products and services (training, consultancy), customisation, (OEM, partnerships) and their different sales channels.

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101: contributing to Mandriva Linux

Friday, October 16th, 2009

(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

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.

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:

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.

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?

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