Ok, this may be a bit lengthy. First off, I like forums a lot more than mailing lists, that's why I basically don't use the gobo mailing list.
But unfortunately the mailing list is the most important aspect for gobolinux development (the bug tracker will mostly be for bugs, not so much about new ideas)

In the mailing archives one will see new ideas etc... presented there. (Most of the time between developers but sometimes with users involved as well).
It would be nice if it would be somehow possible to have discussions extend towards the mailing list as well.
I am aware that some may now say "this will lead to more spam!" ;-) but in principle this is no real problem.

The http://www.ruby-forum.com/ works this way, you just register one account then can participate in a "forum-like" environment (but it should
still be a mailing list). There are still restricted areas, i.e. you cant write to the "ruby core" mailing list, but you can read it there in
this forum environment. This is very nice for a user. You can basically scan through what is hot and discussed about a lot, but
you cant easily disturb that discussion. (On the "normal" mailing list, everyone can freely talk about the language ruby for example)

Sorry for being so long, maybe this could be done one day in the future. Now back to the content for this thread, and
first an explanation about the title:


Of course the title is a joke. "Lego OS"... what a stupid name!
It is partially aimed at Ghotcom who wants another name for GoboLinux ;) and the name LegOS could definitely
never be realized due to trademark/name similarities with that danish company, but what I wanted to
illustrate was a concept. One that works (should work) easily.

In Archlinux basically only one guy builds something, then this binary is available for others to use
via pacman as well. This concept surely works for many other distributions as well, but in Gobolinux it seems
as if it is not as easy to use that as of yet. Or maybe not enough people "participate".
(That is my impression, which may be wrong, but please illustrate if you think this is wrong).

In theory the Gobolinux approach should work 100x better than the Pacman approach, because one basically
only has to "backup" the versioned directory to have something work. This aspect is what reminds me of the
lego building blocks. One has one block (a program) that others could use, and just "plug" onto their
system, and it will work there as well. It will work everywhere! You unplug the Lego block from your
machine, and plug it onto another machine.

I am not sure why this is not as easy in Gobolinux as of yet, maybe it is because not enough people
contribute packages or something. One typically has to cook up a new recipe first, and most seem to
stop there.
If that is the case, I think there should be an inofficial server, where people upload their binaries.
This would be a "not-so-strict" area, where people freely exchange their "building blocks" for others to use,
and have it tested much faster, without much time pressure on the developers. (Developers should,
IMHO, more concentrate on features, bug fixes etc... than on recipes/packages)

I think for new people it is rather important to have things "just work". Gobolinux still has no gnome.
I dont really know why not. If developers would have to "do it", then something would be wrong.
Users should be able to get gnome to run, and be able to contribute their "lego building block"
with others. Men-hours are sparse, devs often dont have enough time. I think there should be a
way forward, to make Gobolinux grow from a rather small distribution to one with a significant
user base, and I think apart from minor problems here or there, the biggest one is that people
can not yet easily choose from a big repository with available - and working - binaries.
(That includes that sometimes binaries are outdated, but this could be solved with a
web interface, for example people could vote on what package should be made
available. I am sure if, let's say, 15 people vote for the newest ... hmm let's say
gnome package, then chances are higher that this will be built sooner, by other
users too)

Anyway, now my brain is empty :D

Long post, and interesting... I'll give my thoughts on one part of it:

Posted By: shevegenI am not sure why this is not as easy in Gobolinux as of yet, maybe it is because not enough people contribute packages or something. One typically has to cook up a new recipe first, and most seem to stop there.
If that is the case, I think there should be an inofficial server, where people upload their binaries.
This would be a "not-so-strict" area, where people freely exchange their "building blocks" for others to use, and have it tested much faster, without much time pressure on the developers. (Developers should, IMHO, more concentrate on features, bug fixes etc... than on recipes/packages)

The bigger a distro is, the more I worry about downloading 3rd party packages for it. I have a certain level of trust for the core developers, but I don't think it's a good idea to set up and endorse a system where a scammer could insert malicious compiled packages, when there's a reasonable alternative in the form of an official CompileFarm (coming soon?), and in the meantime simply distributing Recipes.
If you disagree, you are certainly welcome to set one up or find other people who think it's a good idea and have one of them set it up. A 3rd party repo can be added to /Programs/Scripts/Settings/Scripts/GetAvailable.conf for ease of use.

It is already possible to set up Recipe and Package repositories for anyone. Just make a directory with packages available on a public URL somewhere. It should incude a file "MANIFEST" with the file listing and "MANIFEST.bz2" which is a bziped file of the former. Then those who wants to use the repository can do it by adding it to /Programs/Scripts/Settings/Scripts/GetAvailable.conf as NereusRen already said.
Those who want to add packages to the contribute repository could contact me.