4:37 AM - mports, prepairing for 0.2
I began the day planning to create a snap in preperation for our new release. I ended up modifying the script used to separate packages for release isos, and looking at what packages are missing that we might want to include.
One problem I had not anticipated was the position we're in selecting a default desktop environment. I had been planning on using Etoile + GNUstep. That may still come to pass, but Etoile is not ready for this release. The next logical choice is Gnome. It is not used extensively in the BSD community as PC-BSD and DesktopBSD both use KDE. I'm indifferent as I alternate between KDE, Gnome and other environments on my systems periodically. I like to try out new verisons, and I'm fond of applications from several environments. I started this project hoping to offer something unqiue, and I want to suceed at that. If we role with Gnome, it would be new in the BSD world, but nothing special among the countless Linux distros and Solaris. Many people do love Ubuntu and that ships with Gnome. Another problem with Gnome is that it depends on Firefox. We can't ship a Firefox binary do to usage restrictions for new ports. The webkit work with the project might save us on this issue down the road.
Presuming a native Firefox or Seamonkey is built, it's possible to get a fully working Gnome environment on MidnightBSD. KDE 3.5.8 is also working, but we don't have a QT4 port available to work on KDE 4.1. As for GNUstep and Etoile, I think we need some people porting and upstreaming patches for those projects to proceed on those fronts. I also have an interest in improving the underlying operating system. I have a few radical ideas that I'd like time to explore.
MidnightBSD 0.2 will ship with KDE-lite or KDE3 ports as a necesity. I also plan to include the GNUstep ports if they're working at the time of release. Until the browser matter is settled, I can't do much with Gnome.
I'd appreciate feedback via comments on this blog, email, mailing list communication or chat in iRC about the direction you think the project should go.
Regardless of the choices, we need to accomplish the following tasks.
1. Finish the new installer and package tools
2. Select a desktop environment, port it completely without any "freebsd hacks" and upstream the patches.
3. Work on integration of the environment with the OS, and usability.
Then there's the matter of making the kernel changes I'd like to see as well as bringing in new hardware support.