Dag Wieers wrote: > On Fri, 1 May 2009, Marcus Moeller wrote: > >> Dear Dag, >> >>> I am amazed by the usefulness of the CentOS LiveCD and I would like to >>> discuss the scope of the project. Some of the recommendations I made >>> go against the original idea of LiveCD project. >>> >>> But my (outside) stance on the LiveCD is that it should give the best >>> achievable experience possible for people when trying CentOS. To me that >>> includes adding drivers that are available in other repositories (which >>> are missing from upstream, including wireless firmware, etc...) >>> >>> I do agree that as soon as we leave the deliver-what-upstream-has path, we >>> may open a can of worms (do we also want to fix known bugs ? replace >>> upstream software ? legality ?), so we have to decide what is desirable, >>> what is possible and where the project's effort ends. >> I don't think that there is a need to divide from upstream atm. and am >> not really willed to break compatibility for features. >> >> Concerning the Live-CD, I would suggest to offer a stable version that >> reflects the CentOS release with all dis-advantages it may have (not >> installable, e.g.) > > So it becomes effectively useless for everyone with a netbook/laptop and > needs wireless ? I cannot use the LiveCD unless I somehow transfer the > firmware (or remake the LiveCD), you loose users, hurt the project. > > Upstream doesn't have a LiveCD, so I don't see a good point in maintaining > the same hardware support in that respect. It only hurts the LiveCD > effort. (Same for additional drivers for netbooks/laptops/desktops) > > What's even more, upstream does have wireless firmware in their addon > repository, so in effect we are not offering the same as they are offering > to customers. > +1. The only reason I can see for sticking religiously with the upstream/CentOS base is to use the LiveCD as a tool to test hardware compatibility. IMHO that's a lost opportunity as others have noted and a LiveCD deserves to be so much more than just that. Besides, we all install additional drivers on our real systems when hardware isn't detected or supported by the base offering - just that's somewhat more difficult using a LiveCD which by it's nature is intended (in many users opinion) to be quick and easy to use, not more difficult. We will likely just lose that potential userbase to Ubuntu. I appreciate this IS a difficult call as when you add functionality you also lose the ability to use it as a strict testing tool for out of the box distro compatibility. Is there any way we can have the best of both worlds?