Re: Arabbix - a proposal

[Muhammad Alkarouri <malkarouri at yahoo dot co dot uk>]

--- Omar Abo-Namous <merlin12345 at gmx dot de> wrote:

> Salam,
> 
> one question, since i have no idea whatsoever (nc): How do we intend to 
> work together on customizing the Ubuntu cd. Will every one have to 
> download the whole package everytime he is willing to change anything in it?
> 

There are many ways of change. Not all of us are going to remaster a cd, though
- I hope - many of us are going to download an alpha cd and test it. If we
compartmentalize the problem, like we are going to make all things packages, we
can do that package by package. So, download the theme package and test it.
Download the customization package and improve it, etc..
The way to getting things done is asking questions and answering it. I am glad
you are asking this important question.
By the way, the packages will also be of added value to Debian and derivatives
so you can regard this as helping pushing various distros..
More specifications soon..

> Second question: As far as i know debian linux (and therefore i presume 
> any derivate) can type and read arabic text, so what exactly is arabbix 
> intended to be? Is it the interface that will be in arabic or is it some 
> extra applications ?? I really don't mean to crush the party, but ever 
> since the arabeyes-party i've been thinking about what exactly arabbix 
> is supposed to be, and i came up with nothing, that a normal 
> linux-distribution couldn't offer.

Not all Debian derivatives are born "language support" equal. For a power
user/sys admin it not a great deal, but for a normal user it is annoying to
find out about kde-i18n-ar, how to configure the keyboard applet in gnome, and
all those little things you do when you install your distro. And that is
exactly on the first day an Arabic user is evaluating Linux. No thanks.
Ubuntu is specially focused on localization, I am not saying all else aren't.
But we need something usable by a normal guy.
I think we can do with a little rephrase of your question. Arabbix _will be_ a
'normal linux-distribution', and you already know there are many custom debian
distributions out there, so the question is why are we rolling our own. Now we
are doing this for the same reason Debian initiated the custom debian
distributions project, "Custom Debian Distributions try to provide a solution
for special groups of target users with different skills and interests.". The
Arabic user, IMO, is one such user.
An equally important reason is for, well, marketing purposes. Marketing Linux
to Arabic-speaking people. Marketing Arabeyes to target audience (be it
prospective volunteers, computer scientists, venture capitalists, etc).
Marketing our existence to the outside world: the linux community will listen
more to people with more "proved" experience, this may be it. A tool to market
our bugs and required features to other projects.
That's in general why we need Arabbix. Why we are doing this in a certain way
or another is a totally different discussion.

Thanks for the question. And if you are not convinced, please ask again.
Constructive criticism is always welcome, and if you can suggest another
project that will attain the same or more benefits - and there is actual will
to implement that project, I am sure that Arabeyes will be more than happy with
it.

Salam,
Muhammad Alkarouri


		
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