[maemo-developers] Extras-testing improvements

[From: Dave Neary]

H,

Graham Cobb wrote:
>> I
>> believe we ALL want better quality software, developers, testers, users,
>> everybody. 
> 
> Everybody wants it, just like they want world peace.  The question is what are 
> they willing to sacrifice to get it.  

I'm with Graham on this. The pre-release burden on the developer is fast
making software distribution through Extras less & less attractive.

Don't forget, we're not ITMS, and there aren't crocks of gold waiting on
the other side of a promotion to Extras. And as free software
developers, we want to encourage frequent incremental releases - for
which the extras-testing framework is a disincentive. And we also want
Lots of software available for the platform, which requires keeping the
distribution barrier low.

If the burden on the testers & developers continues to grow, we will see
a return to distribution in the wild, and away from Extras, which would
be a disaster for Maemo. Bringing all the 3rd party repositories
together and making Extras the natural place to ship software to Maemo
users has been one of the great achievements of the past few years, but
the social tide is turning against it. Don't make distributing software
through Extras a task that developers dread.

The easiest proposal is to have it be very easy to get into
extras-testing, and have it be very easy for users to add extras-testing
to their devices, provide scoring & comments infrastructure so that
users can give feedback on the application, and then let the market do
its job and have the cream float to the top. Graham's proposal of making
access to Extras more supple, and providing additional incentives to
move up the quality ladder, is another way to go about it. Excessive
procedure here will kill the fun of shipping Maemo software.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
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