torios team mailing list archive

["Ali/amjjawad" <amjjawad@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all,

I'm very glad to see the mailing list is very active and we're actually
discussing many topics. That's a great sign and an amazing start for a new
year. 2015 was an amazing year for me but I am planning to make 2016 even
better. 2015 for ToriOS was very good for sure but we're looking forward
for my achievements and more great stuff.

This is a DRAFT for my latest vision and thoughts about ToriOS Project from
A-Z. I'll do my best to make it as short as possible. The topics I'm going
to discuss is my final word/thought. While this is a draft and open for
voting, it's NOT open for LONG discussion. I am going to base my thought
and decisions *on everything happened with ToriOS* from day 1 until this
very moment.


*1-ToriOS Development*
*1-1- ToriOS Philosophy:* ToriOS is built for very old Non-PAE machines
that can still work and be useful AND for those who prefer more freedom and
control over their system. We're offering them a very minimal system with
fully working GUI and many basic yet powerful features. Users can use
ToriOS as it is without adding anything OR they have the option to build
their system the way they prefer.

*1-2- ToriOS Base: *ToriOS is based on Ubuntu's Kernel for many reasons,
including but not limited to: (a) Ubuntu is very well-known supported and
community project. (b) Very easy to use and modify. (c) Technical wise, it
supports so many machines and has so many drivers. (d) It is a good start
for a young project like ToriOS to start from Ubuntu rather than other
complicated (less or more) options. We have decided to build 1.0 on 12.04.5
which is supported until April, 2017. It's too early to worry about 2.0
while we have not yet released 1.0, specially when we have only 1 or 2
developers only working on their free/spare time.


*1-3- ToriOS developers: *At the beginning of the project, some people let
us down, twice. That was about to kill the project as there was no one with
enough skills to start working on it. However, thanks to Israel who was
super brave to step in and started to learn more about development and with
the help of Nio and some others, they managed to put together ToriOS 0.9
which has come a very long way. I can't believe how great ToriOS looks
right now! great work and amazing efforts. Despite that, it is no secret we
need 'more' people to join the development and help to make ToriOS even
better. It's also no secret that we have no full-time developer. Sometimes,
we have to wait for more than a week to do something due to real life
priorities.


*1-4- ToriOS and Ubuntu: *Some concerns have been discussed lately. I shall
have a chat with Canonical and Ubuntu people and keep you posted hopefully
soon.


*1-5- ToriOS and Launchpad: *We're depending on Launchpad in almost
everything: (a) ToriOS Team https://launchpad.net/~torios. (b) ToriOS
mailing list torios@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx . (c) ToriOS Project
https://launchpad.net/torios with bugs and blueprints enabled with more
features. (d) ToriOS Website Project https://launchpad.net/torios-website
with bugs and blueprints enabled with more features. (e) ToriOS Development
and QA Team https://launchpad.net/~torios-dev . As long as Launchpad is
offering all the features we do need, I don't want to migrate to any other
platform. While it's okay to use secondary platforms, that should not waste
our time nor efforts. We should plan and act wisely.


*2-ToriOS Website*
*2-1- ToriOS Domains: *https://lists.launchpad.net/torios/msg02180.html .
It means we have tried twice and failed to keep our website up and running.
Now, we don't own torios.org nor torios.net and neither have up and running
website. I have decided to stop wasting time and forget about these two
completely. I have also decided to skip the boring details. Too much
stress, hassle and headache to talk about that topic. Now, we have
torios.top and that is owned by me, the founder of this project.


*2-2- ToriOS Website Platform: *With torios.org, we have used HTML and CSS.
That was not good option at all and needless to say, it wasted so much of
our time. With torios.net, we moved to wordpress but due to the fact that
the server where torios.net was hosted on, it was managed by non
professionals and volunteers, we had so much technical issues. I have
decided to use WordPress (I have maybe more than 10 websites running
WordPress) but also open the door for anyone who wishes to build a website
for ToriOS from scratch and here is the project on Launchpad:
https://launchpad.net/torios-website but please, keep in mind that would be
a side project. I mean, the website of ToriOS must be up and running ASAP
but whoever is interested, he/she can start developing a new one and once
that is done, we can review it and then decide what to do.



*2-3- ToriOS Hosting Server: *Since this topic has created a long debate, I
have decided to host ToriOS website on my server that I'm not yet sure how
will pay for it (Yes, I'm screwed up financially big time) and here is it:
http://torios.top/ - whoever needs access, please let me know.


*2-4- ToriOS Website Philosophy: *"Less is More" and "KISS" are the two
main concepts we shall follow whenever we're building a website whether
it's WordPress or something else and whether the hosting server is
commercial or not. Why? because that's the philosophy of ToriOS project
itself and our website must reflect that.


*2-5- ToriOS ISO hosting: *I can't host any ISO on the server I'm using now
for ToriOS website. However, that should not be a problem. I am sure there
are many other alternatives. Once I understand more from Kris what and why,
if and only if it is possible to host at least 1 main ISO, I shall let you
know. Meanwhile, we can find another host for the ISO.



*3-ToriOS Team Communication**3-1- ToriOS Mailing List: *One of the
features that Launchpad offers is the mailing list
torios@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and ToriOS has been using this since day 1.
There are of course, just like anything in life, plus and minus: (a) Emails
are great way to keep in touch when you have a team from all over the world
with different time zones but sometimes, too much emails and too much
threads create some pain and headache. (b) There is a public archive for
our mailing list https://lists.launchpad.net/torios/ and while that is a
good way to keep everything opened, it also means everyone around the world
if he/she has the link, he/she can read everything which means we have no
privacy whatsoever. (c) While emails are great for reports and feedback,
it's very bad for long discussions and brainstorming. These are, IMHO, the
main points about emails and mailing list.


*3-2- ToriOS IRC Channel: *#torios on freenode was a quiet area and we only
used it when we had our weekly meeting in the past which we have stopped
that at the moment, not sure why? guess because everyone is busy. Despite
how many times I have tried myself to be active on IRC, I couldn't for many
reasons. Mainly, IRC is a great tool/way to do real-time chat but it's also
confusing and not hassle-free. For me, I need to pay great attention
specially if people are chatting about many topics at the same time on the
same channel. I've been there and I always got a headache. Not to mention,
I need to be on my computer to be able to chat, send links, etc.


*3-3- ToriOS Social Media Channels: *We actually never used these channels
to communicate between each other at all. We used these channel to promote
ToriOS only. And, even if anyone of us might think to use these channels, I
must say that these channels are NOT designed nor built to be used for any
project or team management. I have tried that before with different project
and failed big time. These channels are not for that at all.


*3-4- ToriOS Slack Team: *I have created a new team on Slack for ToriOS to
be used as another platform when the above mentioned platforms fail to
deliver the expected. Please, before judging and assuming, kindly watch
this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivn5jfKE_5M you'll understand how
Slack beat all the above mentioned platforms and offers a great way to keep
everything in one place. Needless to say, there is an application for smart
phones (Apple and Android) and it's amazing and great. Not to mention, you
can upload any file you want and share it within 1-2 seconds. With mailing
list, there is always the file size limit and with IRC, it's even harder
and you can share links easier than files. It is private which means people
outside your Slack team will not see each and every bit of your discussion.
It's very very very neat and organized. To keep it short, please watch the
youtube I attached and the screenshot I am sending with this email.


*4-ToriOS Marketing*
As I mentioned https://lists.launchpad.net/torios/msg02197.html I shall
create new channels and add those who are interested to help managing it
but the priority now for the website. Once we finish building our website
and that should not take ages, few days only, we shall link the new created
accounts with our website so whenever we shall publish any post under our
blog, the website will automatically share these posts to 6 different
social media channels with one click, thanks to Jet Pack plugin. We surely
need people to help us in this area.



*5-ToriOS Documentation*
I am not sure where exactly are we when it comes to documentation? I trust
Paul has the answer for that. I am not worried because we have worked on
that area while developing, testing and promoting ToriOS which means, I
hope once we finish developing 1.0, the guide and all the other
documentation resources are ready upon the official release.


*6-ToriOS Testing and QA*
Long story short, without our testers, we would never make it so thank you
very much for everything :)


*7-ToriOS Donation*
I have decided to add "Donate" tab or page on our NEW website and start
asking people for help. I have decided to invest whatever we might receive
into ToriOS development and to be more specific, I am thinking to offer
that to Israel because he's the most dedicated person to this project and
the one who has gone the extra miles over and over again to help this
project. I mean, seriously without his help and direct contribution, ToriOS
would never reach 0.9 at all. Once we get more donation, we can invest that
somewhere else as well. Yes, I have lots of plan for ToriOS but let's take
it one by one ;) the journey of 1000 miles starts with 1 step.

Once we have donation, we can decide where to invest that.

It is very important to be honest and clear with everyone as where the
money will go and why? and I think NO ONE would ever disagree with this
idea.

Imagine what if Israel's machine will die. Can you please tell me how on
earth he can keep working on ToriOS?

Ubuntu MATE accepts donation and many other projects as well. While ToriOS
is non-profit project, we surely must accept donation.

Again, if it is not for the development, there are many other areas where
we can invest the money in. Let the money come-in first ;)




*-----------------------------------------------*
My apology if this email is very long but I decided to invest my time
toady, to be more specific this week, on ToriOS. I hope everything is clear
and easy to understand. If you have any Q, please ask.

Again, all the above decisions are open for voting BUT not for long endless
debate. Again, each and every project or organization must have a leader
and a system. Without these two, chaos will take over. I am sure no one
wants that.

That's all what I have in mind at the moment. In case I have something else
to mention, I'll let you know.

Thank you!

P.S.
I must log out now. I have worked so hard at the garden and didn't yet take
a bath. I wanted to finish this email first and then go. If there are some
spelling mistakes, forgive me ;)



-- 
Remember: "All of us are smarter than any one of us."

Best Regards,
Ali/amjjawad <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/amjjawad>

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