Secondary architectures and marketing

[Oliver Falk]

Hi Steven!

Steven Moix schrieb:
> Since a couple of weeks, I was thinking about the Alphadora distribution
> and I came up with a bunch of questions and propositions to the main
> contributors (Jay and Oliver I think?). So let's go...

Oh yes. Jay and I are still very active. :-)
There are some people who contribute CPU power from time to time. And 
others who help compiling things...

> 1) The secondary architecture question:
> Last year, there were some discussions [1][4] about getting the Fedora
> Alpha port integrated in the official Fedora build system. What's the
> status of this? Is this secondary architecture project dead and buried?
> I was talking about Alphadora with people from Fedora's marketing group,
> let me show their reactions:

I've introduced myself to Paul at LinuxTag2008 in Berlin and asked him 
regarding SecArch. I don't remember exactly what he said, but the last 
information I have is, that there is a space problem...

I also had a (mail-)conversation with Mike (McLean) a few weeks ago, 
because I've seen some scripts in koji git. Script that will help to 
"mirror the list of packages to be built to SecArch koji's" - I hope 
this way to describe it in one setence isn't too wrong. :-)

> - "My question is why don't they work with Fedora and be an official
> secondary arch?"

We *do* want. We also will need a lot of help from the packagers, if we 
want to have a (nearly) complete distribution for Alpha. Not everything 
will be easy to fix, not everything is available for Alpha (eg. 
valgrind) and some packages do depend on packages that are not 
compilable or not available for Alpha... I saw some packages depending 
on valgrind or google-perf-stuff... For example... However.

> - "names like mythdora alphadora eeedora really dilute the Fedora name
> IMO"

I don't know why Jay has introduced the name Alphadora in his latest 
*BETA*-ISOs... With *real* releases such things are not going to happen 
- of course. Usually we are simply talking about 'Fedora for Alpha'. 
Maybe Jay just wanted to make it shorter :-)

> The wiki page [2] seems completely outdated

True, true. My fault. I'm very busy and Jay is trying to fix X most of 
the time. Again. We could really need some help. Especially in 
organizing, documentation and fixing packages... 2 People for (what? 
6.4k pkgs is *hard*!).

 > and alphacore.info doesn't
> even work anymore (is Mike Barnes gone?), which leads me to the second
> proposition.

I've asked Mike via mail some time ago. No reaction yet.... /me is 
thinking about talking the domain... And maybe just redirect it to 
SecArch pages on fpo.

> 2) The marketing question:
> I'm a member of the Fedora marketing SIG [3] and I want to do something
> to promote the Alpha architecture port.

GREAT!!!! If I (we) can help, let me/us know!

> - If it will be integrated as an official secondary architecture, my job
> can be easy.

Any time. But be aware, we currently do not have the complete set of 
pkgs and we do not have *fast* machines as builders. Jay has a few, but 
we cannot integrate them into koji...

> - If for some reason the secondary architecture thing doesn't happen, we
> need a plan. (let's see where this discussion goes before making plans).

:-( Don't hope so.

> The bottom line is that currently there is no way anyone can even know
> that an alpha port for Fedora exists, wouldn't it be more fun to have
> more visibility and users?

True. True. We are quite 'hidden'. On the other hand. We are not really 
hidden, because we are talking on IRC (at least me) in #AlphaCore and 
#alpha. We are also having conversation via the alpha mailinglist. And 
we are visible via bugs (rh bz, gnu bz and others)....

AH! One thing, that is currently a BLOCKER. There's no glibc alpha 
maintainer any more... I've already asked via bz what skills someone who 
would takeover this job would need, but no answer yet.... If it doesn't 
depend on hardcore-deep c knowledge, I could do it myself... If they 
want me to do so. :-)

> I'll shut up for now, let me know what you think.

Well. It was quite clear, that I'll step up and answer this, wasn't it? :-P

I'm willing to do everything needed to make Alpha an official Fedora 
port. But:
* I will need help. For above reasons.
* We will need a new glibc alpha maintainer.


Let me say it with the words of Nike: Just do it. :-)

Best,
  Oliver