[Libreoffice-qa] minutes of ESC call ...

[antonio.faccioli at libreoffice.org]

Hi Michael, Jay, all

Il 09.06.2017 10:59 Michael Meeks ha scritto:
> Hi Jay,
> 
> On 09/06/17 00:10, Jay Philips wrote:
>>> + unclear what the future holds here: Snap, FlatPack, AppImage
>>> (Michael)
>> 
>> If its Libreoffice future, i believe AppImage will be it, as it
>> provides similar functionality as the portable version found on
>> windows, like
>> 
>> 1) not having to install it on your system to run it (aka portable)
> 
> 	The "just run the console and do chmod +x <downloaded-file-name>" that
> I see on their front-page is (I suspect) rather a bit of a usability
> nightmare ;-) at least initially vs. say an app-store. Some 'technical'
> people I know are impressed by command-line use ;-)
> 
>> 2) copying it on a usb and run it on any linux distro (atleast the
>> minimum system that LO supports, something that snap and flatpak cant
>> do)
> 
> 	Nice.
> 
>> 3) easily running multiple versions (would improve linux QA, as it
>> would also lower that barrier for users to test old versions)
> 
> 	I guess.
> 

I'm using appimage to create the various versions of LibreOffice to use 
for client ticket testing.

>>> + how is flat-pack hosted currently ? (Michael) + build & up-load,
>>> and cloph pushes it (Stephan) + whenever there is a 5.3.x it is
>>> build – following Fresh. + no daily build.
>> 
>> If the bash conversion script isnt run locally on the webserver, then
>> Antonio is willing to create the appimages and upload them.
> 
> 	That seems reasonable. I guess it needs an active maintainer who fixes
> problems with it - that is not Cloph =) is that you and/or Antonio ?
> 

I'm available to help.

>>> + the request is “become a linux distribution” (Michael) +
>>> flat-pack doesn’t include the GNOME run-time (Stephan) + AppImage
>>> sounds like it will include ~everything: Gstreamer + all codecs
>>> etc. - from some random PC (Michael)
>> 
>> No the appimage will only include the same files LO bundles in the
>> released .deb and .rpm files found in the .tar.gz. It assumes the
>> users system has the necessary other dependencies on their system.
> 
> 	This removes my major objection at least; if so - good =)
> 
>>> + AppImage works hard to solve a problem we already solved: of
>>> being an ISV on Linux – it is hard but solveable.
>> 
>> Appimage tries to solve a major problem on linux, easily running an
>> app on any linux distro, especially new apps on a stable distro.
> 
> 	I guess its useful to some people =) is there a central app-store /
> location to find appimages ?
> 
>> I will try to attend next week but doubt it will work as VOIP
>> services like hangouts and skype dont function correctly where i live
> 
> 	Is Antonio in a better location for international calls ?
> 

Yes, I'm in Italy.

>> So to move this forward and test the waters, it would be great to
>> setup a page on the website for appimage[13] for the 5.4 beta 2 and
>> link the download links to either an uploaded appimagage on tdf
>> infra[14] or to the one on Antonio's website.
> 
> 	Sounds reasonable to me to test this out as experimental for the 5.4.x
> release and if it works well for 6.0.
> 

I agree, it seems to me the best way.

> 	Any further thoughts Cloph ?
> 
> 	Thanks Jay & Antonio !
> 
> 		Michael.

Regards,
Antonio