(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I notice that two of the threads in this section are locked. In the past, threads have very rarely been locked, and it only occurred after long-running discussions became abusive.

I understand that the underlying issue here is the difference between a "bug" and a "feature". However, ecomoney does raise an important issue involving usability. If the discussion had been allowed to continue a bit, there could have been a resolution to his problem.

For example, simply reducing the number of virtual desktops to one might lessen the frustration of newcomers when they accidentally scroll their mouse in the wrong spot.

I have triple boot on my computer and would be very happy if there is a solution to the problem that I change the desktop with the scroll wheel by mistake when I surf the internet with Puppy 4.2.

rcrsn51 wrote:I understand that the underlying issue here is the difference between a "bug" and a "feature". However, ecomoney does raise an important issue involving usability. If the discussion had been allowed to continue a bit, there could have been a resolution to his problem.

For example, simply reducing the number of virtual desktops to one might lessen the frustration of newcomers when they accidentally scroll their mouse in the wrong spot.

I locked those threads in part because they were already "resolved", just not in the way some would like. I actually intended to delete the threads altogether, because they were feature requests rather than bugs, but decided to lock them and leave them for their explanation of what is and isn't relevant for the current release bugs section. That is not the place to discuss those issues. That section should be kept as succinct as possible to allow devs to clearly identify the immediate problem and post a possible fix in time for the next release.

The threads were not locked to stifle discussion on issues that still need to be resolved either, just in case anyone was wondering. The main forum is the appropriate place for that to happen. The current release area is a working area not a discussion area. Other coordinators may have different ideas but that's the way I treat that section.

I hope that explains things for you, rcrsn51.

Ive made a request that additional forum sections be added, under "Feature Requests", and "Change Requests" headings to the "Next Puppy Development".

This way it will be easier for the Council to see what needs Adding/Fixing/Changing to make puppy better achieve its Mission in the future, as there will be a section for each type of improvement that is required.

Until a decision about whether to add these sections then Im happy they remain locked, and still present, they will make a useful "reference point" in discussions in the future.

Thank you janeee for getting back to us and posting your views. Your voice needs to be heard if Puppy Linux is to become an even more useful piece of technology to more people.

The discussion about the need for this Ive entered into the thread here

Suggestions for the section "next puppy development"

ecomoney wrote:Ive made a request that additional forum sections be added, under "Feature Requests", and "Change Requests" headings to the "Next Puppy Development".

This way it will be easier for the Council to see what needs Adding/Fixing/Changing to make puppy better achieve its Mission in the future, as there will be a section for each type of improvement that is required.

Yes, I've tried to accommodate this need for each release with a "Development" thread (for devs) or a "Suggestions" thread (for non-devs), but even they become quickly clogged with loads of discussion that is difficult to sort through at times. I'd like to think a better way will be found, eventually.

I was also in favour of a formal bug tracker (proposed by Gekko, I believe), but as with any onerous task performed purely by volunteers it died a relatively quick death. Gekko was entering bugs and no-one was picking them up and reporting their status. He lost interest for that and other reasons and there you have it ... zero logical bug tracking.

If someone was willing to build and maintain such a system, I'd even support providing space on puppylinux.org, which isn't really making full use of its 750Gb allocation AFAIK.

Yes, Gekko/Brendan was an extremely smart kid (did you know he was only 16 at the time?), he was hired as Ecomoney's "Lead Developer" for a time and made our first internet connection sharing .pet. He also worked on a cd based installer for ecopup. He had had a lot of experience with many distos, despite his tender years, and could see that puppy needed some way of collecting and tracking bug/feature request information.

The thing is, the bug tracker was separate from the forum, not many of the users new about it, and this is I think why it died a death, and a similar system would go the same way again. We need an easy/simple way of collecting bug/feature/change information (that "just works"). This is why I think forum sections for "bugs","changes" and "features" will ultimately work best for puppy, even though it is not "high tech"...and its already built. Everyone on here knows how to use a forum and make a post already (at least in a technical sense ), they they can use it immediately.

Simply, make the bugs/features/changes in each section "sticky" when its agreed they are serious/urgent enough for addressing the next release. These are the ones that go in.

If we need something more "formal" after that, we can look at it again.