Re: [gentoo-java] Re: Gentoo/Java staffing needs

[Joshua Nichols <nichoj@gentoo.org>]

Ted Kosan wrote:
> Joshua wrote:
>   
> Two of the difficulties that seem to be contributing to the Java team's
> understaffing problem are:
>
> 1) A significant number of Java developers do not know very much about Linux
> and of those who do, not many of them are familiar with Gentoo.
>
> 2) Of those Java developers who are aware of Gentoo and its solid support for
> Java, many of them do not have enough Linux skills to successfully install it.
>
>
>   
I totally agree. Usually, you don't get the right combination of Java
and Linux skills in folks that are interested in helping out.
> After thinking about the understaffing problem for a few months, I have come up
> with an idea that may help solve these difficulties.
>
> I am one of the community leaders on Sun's java.net site ( http://java.net )
> and I have put together a "Java Distribution" LiveCD ( called JDOS,
> https://jdos.dev.java.net ) which is based on Gentoo.  JDOS is ready for its
> initial release and the last thing I am waiting on is for Sun's new
> Linux-friendly JDK files to be added to the portage tree.
>
> One advantage that the java.net site has is that thousands of Java developers
> visit it each day to read blogs, articles and other news items.
>
> As soon as it is released, my plan is to write some articles and blog entries
> on JDOS ( and its Gentoo foundation ) for publication on java.net's front page.
>  My hope is that a number of Java developers will find the CD to be useful and
> then be interested in having their own Java software, or the latest version of
> their favorite Java applications, included on the LiveCD.  
>
>   
This is very cool! I wish I had heard about it earlier. One of the cool
things we had wanted to do, but never quite got to was a live cd showing
off our Java packages. In particular, it'd be nice to have a 'developer'
cd, loaded with netbeans, eclipse, tomcat, etc, etc.

I'll try to give it a whirl sometime this weekend.
> Since this will require that the software be placed in the portage tree, I am
> hoping that some of these developers can be convinced to join the Gentoo Java
> team and learn how to create and maintain packages.
>   
That would certainly be great. If there are needs you have in terms of
packages, or whatever, don't be afraid to drop a note to this list, or
file an appropriate bug.
>> * Java generalists
>>
>> We have tons of Java packages. It was around 400 or so last time I
>> checked. As one can imagine, this kind of number
>> generates a pretty constant stream of bugs and version bump requests.
>>
>> So, basically I'm looking for some people to help out with 
>> general maintence of our packages.
>>     
>
> I will volunteer to be part of this group.  I would have done this a number of
> months ago but I had my hands full learning python so that I could figure out
> how to use Catalyst properly :-)
>   
Very cool. I look forward to it :-D

-- 
Joshua Nichols
Gentoo/Java - Project Lead
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