Re: [Libreoffice-qa] minutes of ESC call ...

Hi Jay,

On 09/06/17 00:10, Jay Philips wrote:
> > + unclear what the future holds here: Snap, FlatPack, AppImage
> > (Michael)
>
> If its Libreoffice future, i believe AppImage will be it, as it
> provides similar functionality as the portable version found on
> windows, like
>
> 1) not having to install it on your system to run it (aka portable)

        The "just run the console and do chmod +x <downloaded-file-name>" that
I see on their front-page is (I suspect) rather a bit of a usability
nightmare ;-) at least initially vs. say an app-store. Some 'technical'
people I know are impressed by command-line use ;-)

> 2) copying it on a usb and run it on any linux distro (atleast the
> minimum system that LO supports, something that snap and flatpak cant
> do)

        Nice.

> 3) easily running multiple versions (would improve linux QA, as it
> would also lower that barrier for users to test old versions)

        I guess.

> > + how is flat-pack hosted currently ? (Michael) + build & up-load,
> > and cloph pushes it (Stephan) + whenever there is a 5.3.x it is
> > build – following Fresh. + no daily build.
>
> If the bash conversion script isnt run locally on the webserver, then
> Antonio is willing to create the appimages and upload them.

        That seems reasonable. I guess it needs an active maintainer who fixes
problems with it - that is not Cloph =) is that you and/or Antonio ?

> > + the request is “become a linux distribution” (Michael) +
> > flat-pack doesn’t include the GNOME run-time (Stephan) + AppImage
> > sounds like it will include ~everything: Gstreamer + all codecs
> > etc. - from some random PC (Michael)
>
> No the appimage will only include the same files LO bundles in the
> released .deb and .rpm files found in the .tar.gz. It assumes the
> users system has the necessary other dependencies on their system.

        This removes my major objection at least; if so - good =)

> > + AppImage works hard to solve a problem we already solved: of
> > being an ISV on Linux – it is hard but solveable.
>
> Appimage tries to solve a major problem on linux, easily running an
> app on any linux distro, especially new apps on a stable distro.

        I guess its useful to some people =) is there a central app-store /
location to find appimages ?

> I will try to attend next week but doubt it will work as VOIP
> services like hangouts and skype dont function correctly where i live

        Is Antonio in a better location for international calls ?

> So to move this forward and test the waters, it would be great to
> setup a page on the website for appimage[13] for the 5.4 beta 2 and
> link the download links to either an uploaded appimagage on tdf
> infra[14] or to the one on Antonio's website.

        Sounds reasonable to me to test this out as experimental for the 5.4.x
release and if it works well for 6.0.

        Any further thoughts Cloph ?

        Thanks Jay & Antonio !

                Michael.

-- 
michael.meeks@collabora.com <><, Pseudo Engineer, itinerant idiot