On Mar 14, 2013 9:49 AM, "Kevin Fenzi" <kevin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Thu, 14 Mar 2013 11:23:35 -0400
> seth vidal <skvidal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > I really have no idea what this tool is purported to look like or
> > who/what is working on it.
> >
> > I thought formulas was about making it easy and simple for folks to
> > try out software from fedora and to start developing using fedora.
> >
> > Essentially, to make it easy to try out fedora for the use case where
> > we matter - as a server or a devel platform.
> >
> > I based my thoughts on my conversations with Kevin (who suggested
> > formulas to begin with). So I don't think I'm out in left field here.
>
> So, a bit of history here. (wow, we have history already?)
>
> I originally came up with the idea around spins. spins are horrible and
> I wanted to come up with a way to no longer have to create them. So,
> take a electronics-lab user. Now they download a live image we have
> created and distributed and install it. My thought was if there was a
> way for them to just download ANY fedora install, install that then we
> could have something that would install the electronics-lab packages,
> etc and they would be set.
>
> My next immediate thought is that this could also be wonderfully handy
> for lots of other cases where there wasn't enough energy for someone
> to make a spin or where they were too niche. LAMP stack, openstack
> compute node, the sky's the limit. Many of our users would love ways
> to install a base 'known good', 'best practices' setup and start from
> there.
>
I have a similar vision. It's attractive to end users, and encouraging predictable deployment makes support easier. It also provides examples of functionality we provide; whether desktop applications or cloud services, a browseable and searchable interface shows people what Fedora can do for them. The cloud use case, as I infer Seth is describing, is an experienced sysadmin that knows what problem they are addressing, knows what solution they want to use, and clones the git repo to check for a Formula to suit. The UI helps the sysadmin that knows the problem and is shopping for a solution. It helps the end user that likes goofing around on their computer and wants some new software to play with. As Matthias said, the difference on the backend is metadata.
> > If that's not what formulas is then I'll just walk away from this list
> > and formulas and do the stuff I care about on my own.
>
> Please don't.
>
We're a group - you don't have to do it all. Hell, I only have a basic understanding of Ansible at this point. If you plow on creating playbooks that suit your needs, I'd be happy to add signal to them and polish for presentation. I'd learn a lot doing that, which is my goal for participating in the first place. Defining the metadata early on will help.
> Some other questions:
>
> Single git tree? Or tree per formula? A single one could get
> overlarge, multiple are harder to discover.
>
> kevin
>
I don't have any great ideas on work flow, but a UI *would* solve the discoverability problem.
--Pete
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