Re: [gentoo-dev] Gentoo Hangouts

[Egg Plant <egg.plant@rocketmail.com>]

----- Original Message -----

> From: Michael Palimaka <kensington@gentoo.org>
> 
> On 24/06/2013 07:30, Pavlos Ratis wrote:
>>  That's why I'd like to propose Gentoo Hangouts. Gentoo Hangouts 
> will
>>  be Google+  video Hangouts(video calls) held by teams or developers
>>  independent of a team. The main goal is to have the teams introduce
>>  themselves and discuss about different issues in their Gentoo-related
>>  projects.
> 
> Thanks for taking the time and initiative to work on something new, I am 
> sure it will prove interesting.
> 
> It is the response that confuses me - I don't understand why everyone is 
> rushing to shut it down before it even begins. For those that are not 
> interested in the idea of a video hangout, just don't use it and move on 
> - simple.
>


I don't know whether a new gentoo user like me have any say here, I would like to point out some problems about this proposal !

1. Video requires high bandwidth internet, so useless in developing countries, where even today you can not think of 24x7 internet. Yes, there are Broadband, 3G, 4G, ... just as advertisement, no real speed or reliability, or you may say we can not bear the huge cost.


2. Gentoo is not backed by any public invested company or private company, no corporation. So there is nobody to show your monthly/quarterly progress, nothing to hide intelligently. That is why I'm here.

3. I am subscribed to almost all mailing lists (I think it's justified for a newcomer), so already getting huge mails. There is IRC for realtime communication, which is easily configurable in any computing device, no big price, no hidden code (atleast for the client), no high bandwidth network, no battery drain.

4. More communication channels will just create fragmentation & distraction. Installing & maintaing Gentoo is already a big work, now if I have to check regularly the huge Mailing lists, IRC, Bugzilla, git and now you are saying about Google Hangout, may be later someone will say about Twitter, Facebook, .... I am just finished. It will just waste our time. FYI, I am not a Computer Science student/engineer/researcher.

 [N.B.: Gentoo is different from other distros, every user need to be half developer/tester here. It's not as polished/finished as the binary distros (atleast what they want to be). It provides choice, ultimate customization, which is not a child play. Users like to be aware of what is cooking with the ebuilds & sourcecode, what will eventually come within a couple of months to their stable system, unlike 6 months of testing interval in binary distros.]

5. I do'nt know whether people outside of UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Germany and elites of  India, South Africa are at all comfortable with spoken english, I mean to speak. So language will be a big barrier for this type of your promotional activity.

 [N.B.: I am neither considering Gentoo because some Hero/Idol said so or helping me out, nor just Stumbleupon it, I am here after trying other distros and lots of associated frustration. Distrowatch is there to maintain the Linux Distro Stock Exchange.]

6. other members already stated some other valid reasons against it, I'm not repeating.

7. It can be ok if you or somebody else do it as an unofficial effort, don't request the teams to make it another official channel.

8. For promotional activities, I would like to have an YouTube/<AnyPopularSite> channel on getting started type video tutorial, or developer's interview etc, specially during new Live DVD releases, Gentoo birthday, 25th December (people will have one week to play with Gentoo). If possible, make it multilingual or atleast provide multilingual subtitle.

9. On a different note, I would like to have the Handbook split into different parts: 1. Getting started (installation in Qemu/Virtualbox preferably), 2. Advanced Network configuration, 3. Software Management in details, 4. System/Service management (OpenRC, Systemd). The big book for a newcomer is toooo boring.
I know it's not the right place, just a comment for now!


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I'm yet a learner, warn me if I'm doing any wrong... [|:-)