What's The Plan For Ångström ? Options

[kopsis]

... but I only criticise some points "special characters in distribution name" and "user friendlyness".

Dude, for more than half the world "A" is a "special character" "Å" and "ö" are perfectly legitimate Latin 1 glyphs and with any decent desktop envirmonment are just not that difficult to type. Not to mention that fact that if one simply types "Angstrom" in virtually any context it's obvious that they mean "Ångström" (I'm assuming you know what an ångström is). Get over it.

As for "user friendliness" I really get riled up when people who are in no position to contribute to a development effort rail on developers for not making their projects "user friendly". Unless you've actually done the work of taking something from "usable" to "user friendly" you can't even begin to comprehend how much work is involved. It's not unusual for the effort required to make something "friendly" to exceed the effort required to make it initially work!

Case in point, when I rolled up Python into an easy to install/use package for Sharp ROM Zaurii, it took over 400% as much effort as just getting Python to build and run on the Z. I'm now working on an easy to install Sharp Qtopia SDK and it's taken the better part of a week's worth of effort to take something that was working fine for me and make it such that a novice user can install and use it with minimal difficulty. I've spent two days just writing the document that explains it all.

If you want an Open Source project to be more user friendly, don't complain to the developers ... roll up your sleeves and help! Can't code? Learn. It's not magic. Document your learning experience including problems and pitfalls so that there's a concise list of specific issues that need to be addressed. "It's not friendly" is not useful feedback to veteran developers. And don't think that you need to be a kernel hacker to contribute. Don't want to code? Fine, help document. The first step to making something friendly is thoroughly documenting how it works now. You can't streamline a process without a detailed description of a process.

If you want to convince people that you truly want to improve a project (and not just troll) then put your time/money where your mouth is and find a way to contribute. Otherwise you're just leaching off the fruits of someone else's labor while at the same time complaining that it's not quite sweet enough for your taste.

<desperate_attempt_to_bring_rant_back_on_topic>
I don't currently use OE, but I will continue to follow its and Ångström's development to assess their applicability to some embedded Linux systems that I work with. Having rolled my own embedded distro from scratch, I can really appreciate the effort that these projects have put into streamlining the process! You think OE isn't friendly? Try building a ROM the old fashioned way!
</desperate_attempt_to_bring_rant_back_on_topic>

[koen]

I find it especially amusing that Ångström is allready deemed user-unfriendly without having seen a single release or snapshot. I don't like trolls, but people trolling stuff a-priori is far worse.

[XorA]

We should do a special version for "special" people, replacing /sbin/init with /bin/vi :-)

[blachner]

Dude, for more than half the world "A" is a "special character" 

Your point. Thats true.

"Å" and "ö" are perfectly legitimate Latin 1 glyphs and with any decent desktop envirmonment are just not that difficult to type. Not to mention that fact that if one simply types "Angstrom" in virtually any context it's obvious that they mean "Ångström" (I'm assuming you know what an ångström is). Get over it.

Not difficult to type? If it is not on the keyboard it is difficult to type. But one arguement angainst Angstrom and for an other unique name is internet search. Ok, you can just search Angstrom and an other related word. But Ok, for me Ångström is now just Angstrom and we can forget this discussion.

[blachner]

I find it especially amusing that Ångström is allready deemed user-unfriendly without having seen a single release or snapshot. I don't like trolls, but people trolling stuff a-priori is far worse.

If you can read, you see that I clarify that the name Ångström is a little user unfriendly in my opinion. You also can read that I talk of OpenZaurus and not of the yet non existent Angstrom Distribution when I talk from "user unfriendly".

My failure was to do this in this thread, because it was Off Topic. Yes.

[blachner]

We should do a special version for "special" people, replacing /sbin/init with /bin/vi :-)

I like vi, because I learned how to use it and because it is available on most Linux/Unix systems. But hopefully you don't take vi as an example of user friendlyness.