RE: [K12OSN] Roadmap vs FAQ?

["Jim Kronebusch" <jim winonacotter org>]

For what it is worth this answered most of my current questions about
the project.  I think what you have so far is great.

Thanks

-----Original Message-----
From: k12osn-admin redhat com [mailto:k12osn-admin redhat com] On Behalf
Of Eric Harrison
Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 1:50 AM
To: k12osn redhat com
Subject: [K12OSN] Roadmap vs FAQ?



When I sit down and try to write out a "roadmap" for K12LTSP, it seems
to gravitate towards a FAQ. Many of the "where are we going" questions
were addressed long ago, they are just re-hashes of old debates. As
such, maybe a FAQ-type document would be more appropriate?


Here's a start. I'm sure I missed much and made many mistakes. Consider
this suggested draft version 0.0.1. What do you think?

-Eric



Frequently Asked Questions about the K12LTSP project
----------------------------------------------------

1) What is K12LTSP?

   K12 = Kindergarten thru High School in the US education system
   LTSP = the Linux Terminal Server Project (www.ltsp.org)

   K12LTSP is an implementation of LTSP that is geared towards
education.


2) Can K12LTSP be used in businesses?

   Absolutely. It is free software.  It was developed, and is currently
   maintained, with schools in mind. If fourth graders can use it, odds
   are pretty good that it is easy enough to use for most grown-ups. A
   significant number of users of K12LTSP are business/industry
orientated.


3) What is the difference between LTSP and K12LTSP?

   K12LTSP is a preconfigured version of LTSP. The LTSP project supports
   a mind-boggling range of Linux distributions. K12LTSP merges LTSP, a
   base Linux distribution, and additional educational software into a
   single, easy-to-install, pre-configured installation. The "LTSP" part
   of K12LTSP is 100% pure LTSP.


4) Which Linux distribution is K12LTSP built on-top of?

   Historically, K12LTSP was built on-top of Red Hat Linux (RHL). As of
   the end of April, RHL will no longer be supported by Red Hat. RHL has
   been split into two tracks: Fedora (free, fast moving, exciting) and
   Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL, subscription, slow moving, stable).

   The needs of the K12LTSP user base are diverging in much the same
   manner as RHL. A large group of users are very happy with the current
   state of the project and want it remain stable for a significant
   length of time. Another group of users want to push this technology
   forward, requesting features and functions that are not possible in
   the current release.

   K12LTSP will be available in two forms. A fully integrated version
   will be based on Fedora. Fedora plans for rapid releases, every four
   months or so. New versions of K12LTSP have historically been released
   every other month, so this rapid development-and-release suits us
well.

   Not everyone wants/needs to be on the bleeding edge of this
technology,
   as the saying goes "if it is not broken, don't fix it". The Fedora
   version of K12LTSP changes too fast for many.

   As new packages prove to be stable in the Fedora version of K12LTSP, 
   they will be back-ported to the "Enterprise" versions. These packages
   will not be tightly integrated into the Enterprise Linux installers,
   as they will be in the Fedora version, but will still be relatively
   easy to install. Since this highly-stable version of K12LTSP is not
   meant to change often, tight integration with the installer is not
   as much of a necessity.

5) Will K12LTSP packages be made available for other distributions?

   Not at the moment. If you want to duplicate this work on-top of 
   Debian or Gentoo or Mandrake or whatever, we'll be happy to show
   you the magic behind the curtain. But there is only so many hours
   in the day, so the K12LTSP packagers will not being doing this work
   themselves.

6) Who does the K12LTSP packaging?

   Roles have changed over time. It used to be a lot more work than it
   is now, you see. K12LTSP is mostly the up-stream developers and
projects,
   the users who provide feed back, and one unlucky sap who spends a
fair
   amount of time doing packaging work and is the release manager.

7) How can I help?

   Documentation. It is easy to add to the wiki @
http://k12ltsp.org/phpwiki/

   Testing. QA of new packages is a huge help.

   Feedback. K12LTSP is what it is because of the feedback loop between
     developers and users. Don't be afraid to ask questions or offer
     suggestions, whether it is basic or advanced.

   Volunteer/work on upstream projects. K12LTSP is the integration of a
     huge number of free software projects. Any work you do upstream
will
     trickle back down to K12LTSP. LTSP.org is an obvious choice, but
every
     single desktop-related project is included in K12LTSP. GNOME, KDE, 
     Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, blender, GIMP, etc, etc.

   Support. Answer questions on the mailing list, write documentation,
etc.


8) Can I ask for help?

   That is what the K12OSN list is for. This is one of the more friendly
      groups on the internet, don't be afraid to ask beginner questions.
      At the same time, much of the development work is done there as
well,
      don't let it scare you. Since this is largely an education
endeavor,
      we hope you will learn a thing or two about how a project such as
      this is developed and maintained.




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