Future Release Naming

People interested

• Pam Chestek
• Toshio Kuratomi
• Jaroslav Reznik
• Stephen Smoogen
• Máirín Duffy
• Emily Dirsh (emichan)
• Ruth Suehle
• Antonio Trande (Sagitter)
• Elad Alfassa
• Robyn Bergeron
• Robert 'Bob' Jensen
• Max A
• Mark "ALL Hail the Beefy Miracle!" Terranova
• Dan Mashal
• Buddhika Chandradeepa Kurera
• Clint Savage
• Heavensmile

• (?) John Rose, Maria Leandro (These people have participated heavily in the discussions but haven't explicitly said they want to meet)

What do we get from the current process

• A theme for the release wallpaper, website, other artwork
• A "less cold" way to refer to the release
• A process that involves new contributors to Fedora
• The release name is treated somewhat as an internal code name but it has become more a public part of the Fedora release due to: 1) tying it to the theming process and 2) the press sometimes referring to it by the release name.
• Pre-vetting of names before being passed to Legal (saves us valuable lawyer time and money)
• Opportunities for unique marketing
• The potential for end runs around the guidelines allowing names like the F17 name to be present on the ballot infinately.

What do people want from a revised process

• A theme for the distribution that spans releases
• A naming scheme that makes it more obvious when a release happened (not necessarily date-wise... maybe sequence is a better description)
• A process that gets new contributors excited that they have joined Fedora
• A "less cold" way to refer to the release
• Something that's still fun
• A process that is able to adapt to changes over time (EG if naming theme A gets played out there is a method to move to B).

Proposals

• Mizmo has a proposal (Suggestions_for_Fedora_Codename_Theme) to use a single theme for the rest of the Fedora releases.
  • Once an overall theme is chosen, individual names for each release are selected via the same process as today, we simply replace the "is-a" relationship with the theme.
  • For example, if the theme is "Coffee & Tea Drinks," then the community is invited to make proposals on different coffee or tea drink names they think would be a good fit for the next release, and we hold a vote to see which one is the favorite for the next release.
  • Starting from Mizmo's proposal, this is an example how a Codename_Theme could be used; see here.
    • The "is-a" relation is subordinated to the theme
    • The candidates per every release are fixed, limited (that provides a vote none too dispersive) and directly related to Fedora-Number
    • The Fedora Design is independent

• Remove the is-a relationship. We just brainstorm every release for the best names we can and then vote on them.

• Decouple release naming from theming. Keep the release naming pretty much the same as it is now but move more towards being an internal code name. Theming can be wholly independent now.
  • Downside to this is that we go from bad inspiration to absolutely no inspiration for the artwork.
  • Upside to this is that it frees the design team to go be inspired by tea if that is what inspires them while allowing the rest of the community to have fun and feel engaged and a part of the project in a small way that many seem to enjoy.

• Add a sound to the theme for boot up. I think that people recognise the boot up sound from ceratin other devices better than they recognise the Art work. I have a composer contact or two who would do the tune if that was needed.--Nerak99 13:02, 16 May 2012 (UTC)

• Kill, version numbers for releases, but do keep them 'internally.' What is the difference between Fedora 145 and 146? Clearly we will need to end the scheme eventually. Saying Fedora 19 does not, by itself, inform the user about what new software they are getting, over say, Fedora 18. rhl 14:16, 19 May 2012 (EST)

Meetings

Upcoming

Date: Friday 15th

Time: 5 PM UTC (1 PM EDT, 7 PM CEST)

Place: #fedora-meeting-1 on freenode

Agenda: To check the real demand for change and to find out what are our expectations from the potential change.