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

Thu Jun 8 23:10:20 UTC 2017

Hi All,

Sorry i wasnt able to attend today, so i guess i'll leave my comments by email.

>      + 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)
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)
3) easily running multiple versions (would improve linux QA, as it would also lower that barrier for users to test old versions)

>      + no real need for Linux portable edition (Cloph)
>         + tar-ball can be unzipped.

This is fine for advanced linux users but not for basic linux users, including those from windows or mac. The tar-ball doesnt even come with a simple extract or install bash script, which is why i had to write my own for QA work[1]. This same argument could be said for windows, but we dont tell them to download the .msi file and extract it with 'msiexec /a LibO_<version>_Win_x86_multi.msi TARGETDIR="L:\3.6.0"'[2], so they can run it.

[1] https://pastebin.com/L6SFSYFR
[2] https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel/Windows

>      + some people may want it do why not ? (Heiko)
>         + up-loading takes time, maintenance etc. (Cloph)

The .tar.gz to .appimage bash conversion script can be run directly on the webserver, so that would eliminate any uploading time.

>         + if 2 people use it – build it themselves pwrt. daily builds.

Quite sure more than 2 people will use it, as i would be one of them, and am quite sure it will benefit the QA team as well. But i guess we can track the download numbers for it to test whether it is beneficial to keep making them or not once they are available. What are the download numbers like for flatpak?

>      + 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.

>      + 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.

>           + can Jay distribute it instead ?

If infra doesnt want to host the appimages, Antonio can host them as he does today at < http://libreoffice.soluzioniopen.com/ >, but some may feel that its is not officially endorsed by LO if they have to go off of LO's website to get it.

>           + how large is it ?

The 'English' version of 5.4 beta 2 is 274MB[3], the 'Standard' version of 5.4 beta 2 is 308MB[4] and the 'Full' version of 5.4 beta 2 is 382MB[5]. The 'Standard' version contains the same language files as found in the 'MultilingualStandard' windows portable file and the 'Full' version contains all languages files, similar to the 'MultilingualAll' windows portable file[6]. For comparison, the 5.3.3 snap release is 358MB[7].

[3] http://libreoffice.soluzioniopen.com/pre-releases/LibreOfficeDev-5.4.0.0.beta2_English_x86-64.AppImage
[4] http://libreoffice.soluzioniopen.com/pre-releases/LibreOfficeDev_5.4.0.0.beta2_Standard_x86-64.AppImage
[5] http://libreoffice.soluzioniopen.com/pre-releases/LibreOfficeDev_5.4.0.0.beta2_Full_x86-64.AppImage
[6] http://www.libreoffice.org/download/portable-versions/
[7] https://public.apps.ubuntu.com/anon/download-snap/CpUkI0qPIIBVRsjy49adNq4D6Ra72y4v_19.snap

>           + 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. For more information, you can watch opensuse's Richard Brown compare AppImage, Snappy and Flatpak[8], watch the appimage author's presentation at the opensuse conference[9], view the script that converts the .tar.gz to .appimage[10], view a list of the apps that use appimage[12], or check out their website[11].

[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1OwX-dNFo
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrWB2OZ9h2Y
[10] https://github.com/AppImage/AppImages/blob/master/recipes/libreoffice/Recipe
[11] https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/AppImages
[12] http://appimage.org/

>      + Sad to miss jphilips in the discussion; do it again later ?

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 due to the ISP and none of the talk-yo dial-in locations are close by. The only option that works for me presently is jitsi, so if the interested parties are willing to do a session about this there, that would appreciated.

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.

[13] https://www.libreoffice.org/download/appimage/
[14] https://downloadarchive.documentfoundation.org/libreoffice/old/5.4.0.0.beta2/appimage/

Regards,
Yousuf