Discussion:
Contacting Debian CD team
(too old to reply)
Andreas Tille
2024-05-24 16:30:01 UTC
Permalink
Hi,

I'd like to officially contact all our teams to learn about potential
issues that might affect your work. I would love to learn how you
organise / share your workload. If you do some regular meetings - be it
on IRC, video conference or whatever I'm interested in joining one of
your next meetings.

Like previous DPLs, I'm open to any inquiries or requests for
assistance. I personally prefer public discussion whenever possible, as
they can benefit a wider audience. You can find a list of contact
options at the bottom of my page on people.d.o[1].

I prefer being offline when I'm away from my keyboard, so I don't carry
a phone. In urgent situations, I can provide the number of my dumb
phone, though it may not always be within reach. Feel free to ping me
via email if I don't respond promptly to ensure I address your concerns.

Please let me know whether I can do something for you. I'm fine joining
your IRC channel if needed but please invite me in case I should be
informed about some urgent discussion there since I normally do not lurk
on this channel.

I'd also like to inform you that I've registered a BoF for DebConf24 in
Busan with the following description:

This BoF is an attempt to gather as much as possible teams inside
Debian to exchange experiences, discuss workflows inside teams, share
their ways to attract newcomers etc.

Each participant team should prepare a short description of their work
and what team roles (“openings”) they have for new contributors. Even
for delegated teams (membership is less fluid), it would be good to
present the team, explain what it takes to be a team member, and what
steps people usually go to end up being invited to participate. Some
other teams can easily absorb contributions from salsa MRs, and at some
point people get commit access. Anyway, the point is that we work on the
idea that the pathway to become a team member becomes more clear from an
outsider point-of-view.

I'm sure not everybody will be able to travel this distance but it would
be great if you would at least consider joining that BoF remotely. I'll
care for a somehow TimeZone aware scheduling - if needed we'll organise
two BoFs to match all time zones. I'm also aware that we have pretty
different teams and it might make sense to do some infrastructure
related BoF with your team and other teams that are caring for Debian
infrastructure.

I have some specific questions to the Debian CD team.

- Do you feel good when doing your work in Debian CD team?
- Do you consider the workload of your team equally shared amongst its
members?
- Do you have some strategy to gather new contributors for your team?
- Can you give some individual estimation how many hours per week you
are working on your tasks in youre team? Does this fit the amount of
time you can really afford for this task?
- My very personal (not DPL related) hope is that we will see some
installer featuring Debian Pure Blends. What chances do you see
to get this happen?
- Can I do anything for you?


Kind regards and thanks a lot for your work
Andreas.


[1] https://people.debian.org/~tille/
--
https://fam-tille.de
Steve McIntyre
2024-07-22 22:00:01 UTC
Permalink
[ Gah, sorry - wrote this replay ages ago and apparently failed to
send it! :-( ]
Post by Andreas Tille
Hi,
I'd like to officially contact all our teams to learn about potential
issues that might affect your work. I would love to learn how you
organise / share your workload. If you do some regular meetings - be it
on IRC, video conference or whatever I'm interested in joining one of
your next meetings.
We don't tend to have meetings as such, but we tend to get together
for releases and point releases to work on building and testing. You'd
be more than welcome to join us! :-)
Post by Andreas Tille
Like previous DPLs, I'm open to any inquiries or requests for
assistance. I personally prefer public discussion whenever possible, as
they can benefit a wider audience. You can find a list of contact
options at the bottom of my page on people.d.o[1].
I prefer being offline when I'm away from my keyboard, so I don't carry
a phone. In urgent situations, I can provide the number of my dumb
phone, though it may not always be within reach. Feel free to ping me
via email if I don't respond promptly to ensure I address your concerns.
Please let me know whether I can do something for you. I'm fine joining
your IRC channel if needed but please invite me in case I should be
informed about some urgent discussion there since I normally do not lurk
on this channel.
I'd also like to inform you that I've registered a BoF for DebConf24 in
This BoF is an attempt to gather as much as possible teams inside
Debian to exchange experiences, discuss workflows inside teams, share
their ways to attract newcomers etc.
Each participant team should prepare a short description of their work
and what team roles (“openings”) they have for new contributors. Even
for delegated teams (membership is less fluid), it would be good to
present the team, explain what it takes to be a team member, and what
steps people usually go to end up being invited to participate. Some
other teams can easily absorb contributions from salsa MRs, and at some
point people get commit access. Anyway, the point is that we work on the
idea that the pathway to become a team member becomes more clear from an
outsider point-of-view.
I'm sure not everybody will be able to travel this distance but it would
be great if you would at least consider joining that BoF remotely. I'll
care for a somehow TimeZone aware scheduling - if needed we'll organise
two BoFs to match all time zones. I'm also aware that we have pretty
different teams and it might make sense to do some infrastructure
related BoF with your team and other teams that are caring for Debian
infrastructure.
ACK. I'll be looking for stuff in the schedule and trying to join
remotely where it makes sense.
Post by Andreas Tille
I have some specific questions to the Debian CD team.
- Do you feel good when doing your work in Debian CD team?
Yep! Especially as we have a good bunch of friends working together.
Post by Andreas Tille
- Do you consider the workload of your team equally shared amongst its
members?
Not quite, but it's ok. I'm the primary maintainer of our setup (both
code and archive), and I tend to do most of the builds. But other
people are capable of doing that (Cyril and Andy Simpkins) if
needed. On release weekends, people chip in with whatever time and
skills they have, and we have some non-DD contributors in that set
too.
Post by Andreas Tille
- Do you have some strategy to gather new contributors for your team?
Exactly that - we encourage new people to contribute with testing when
they're interested. In terms of maintenance and development of new
stuff, that's more difficult, but we do have other people helping too.
Post by Andreas Tille
- Can you give some individual estimation how many hours per week you
are working on your tasks in youre team? Does this fit the amount of
time you can really afford for this task?
Typically it's no more than a few minutes per week, but that ramps up
a lot when we spend an entire day doing releases. It's bursty! From
time to time I spend a few hours together checking on infrastructure
like snapshots, and I have a few outstanding MRs to pick up.

debian-cd stuff tends to be fine; I have more issues finding time for
other tasks that are more interrupt-driven.
Post by Andreas Tille
- My very personal (not DPL related) hope is that we will see some
installer featuring Debian Pure Blends. What chances do you see
to get this happen?
Hmmm. We have history here... :-) What exactly are you hoping to see?
A separate set of installer image(s) with all the Blends included?
Just the normal installer images but with the blends version of
tasksel included? The latter would be very easy, the former much more
effort for not so much gain (IMHO).
Post by Andreas Tille
- Can I do anything for you?
I'm good, thanks. :-)
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. ***@einval.com
Mature Sporty Personal
More Innovation More Adult
A Man in Dandism
Powered Midship Specialty
Andreas Tille
2024-07-22 23:20:01 UTC
Permalink
Hi Steve and greetings from Busan,

at first: Missing you here!
Post by Steve McIntyre
We don't tend to have meetings as such, but we tend to get together
for releases and point releases to work on building and testing. You'd
be more than welcome to join us! :-)
No promises but its fine to keep me in the row.
Post by Steve McIntyre
Post by Andreas Tille
I'm sure not everybody will be able to travel this distance but it would
be great if you would at least consider joining that BoF remotely. I'll
care for a somehow TimeZone aware scheduling - if needed we'll organise
two BoFs to match all time zones. I'm also aware that we have pretty
different teams and it might make sense to do some infrastructure
related BoF with your team and other teams that are caring for Debian
infrastructure.
ACK. I'll be looking for stuff in the schedule and trying to join
remotely where it makes sense.
That would be nice.
Post by Steve McIntyre
Post by Andreas Tille
- Do you feel good when doing your work in Debian CD team?
Yep! Especially as we have a good bunch of friends working together.
Nice.
Post by Steve McIntyre
Post by Andreas Tille
- Do you consider the workload of your team equally shared amongst its
members?
Not quite, but it's ok. I'm the primary maintainer of our setup (both
code and archive), and I tend to do most of the builds. But other
people are capable of doing that (Cyril and Andy Simpkins) if
needed. On release weekends, people chip in with whatever time and
skills they have, and we have some non-DD contributors in that set
too.
OK.
Post by Steve McIntyre
Post by Andreas Tille
- Do you have some strategy to gather new contributors for your team?
Exactly that - we encourage new people to contribute with testing when
they're interested. In terms of maintenance and development of new
stuff, that's more difficult, but we do have other people helping too.
Wish you all the best for some healthy team growth.
Post by Steve McIntyre
Post by Andreas Tille
- Can you give some individual estimation how many hours per week you
are working on your tasks in youre team? Does this fit the amount of
time you can really afford for this task?
Typically it's no more than a few minutes per week, but that ramps up
a lot when we spend an entire day doing releases. It's bursty! From
time to time I spend a few hours together checking on infrastructure
like snapshots, and I have a few outstanding MRs to pick up.
debian-cd stuff tends to be fine; I have more issues finding time for
other tasks that are more interrupt-driven.
Understood.
Post by Steve McIntyre
Post by Andreas Tille
- My very personal (not DPL related) hope is that we will see some
installer featuring Debian Pure Blends. What chances do you see
to get this happen?
Hmmm. We have history here... :-) What exactly are you hoping to see?
A separate set of installer image(s) with all the Blends included?
Just the normal installer images but with the blends version of
tasksel included? The latter would be very easy, the former much more
effort for not so much gain (IMHO).
We really want to "advertise" Blends inside the official installer CD.
Separate CDs are not needed at all, IMHO. After a >20 year history I
was hoping for

https://lists.debian.org/debian-blends/2024/05/msg00001.html

and I would be really happy to see that in Trixi.
Post by Steve McIntyre
Post by Andreas Tille
- Can I do anything for you?
I'm good, thanks. :-)
Great! See you in Cambridge
Andreas.
--
https://fam-tille.de
Steve McIntyre
2024-07-28 22:30:01 UTC
Permalink
Post by Andreas Tille
Post by Steve McIntyre
Post by Andreas Tille
- My very personal (not DPL related) hope is that we will see some
installer featuring Debian Pure Blends. What chances do you see
to get this happen?
Hmmm. We have history here... :-) What exactly are you hoping to see?
A separate set of installer image(s) with all the Blends included?
Just the normal installer images but with the blends version of
tasksel included? The latter would be very easy, the former much more
effort for not so much gain (IMHO).
We really want to "advertise" Blends inside the official installer CD.
Separate CDs are not needed at all, IMHO. After a >20 year history I
was hoping for
https://lists.debian.org/debian-blends/2024/05/msg00001.html
and I would be really happy to see that in Trixi.
OK. That shouldn't need much from this team, it's just about when the
blendsel stuff is in d-i builds. I *don't* plan on doing anything to
ensure that all the required packages are available on media, though -
IMHO that would shuffle things around too much for other users. If you
want the blends selection to work flawlessly, then you'll either need
a larger set of images or a net connection to find a mirror. I trust
that's OK?
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK. ***@einval.com
"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that
English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on
occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them
unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." -- James D. Nicoll
Andreas Tille
2024-07-28 23:10:01 UTC
Permalink
Hi Steve,
Post by Steve McIntyre
Post by Andreas Tille
was hoping for
https://lists.debian.org/debian-blends/2024/05/msg00001.html
and I would be really happy to see that in Trixi.
OK. That shouldn't need much from this team, it's just about when the
blendsel stuff is in d-i builds. I *don't* plan on doing anything to
ensure that all the required packages are available on media, though -
IMHO that would shuffle things around too much for other users. If you
want the blends selection to work flawlessly, then you'll either need
a larger set of images or a net connection to find a mirror. I trust
that's OK?
Assuming a net connection is perfectly OK.

Greetings from DebConf
Andreas.
--
https://fam-tille.de
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