[CentOS-devel] CentOS stream meeting - update

[Jim Perrin]

On 10/8/19 11:46 AM, James Cassell wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 8, 2019, at 11:37 AM, Rich Bowen wrote:
>> Last week a group of Red Hat engineers, management, and members of the
>> CentOS and Fedora communities, met at the Red Hat office in Boston to
>> discuss how to implement CentOS Stream and formally kick-off the
>> project, which, as you are aware, was announced the week before. Many
>> details that were omitted in the original announcement were debated, and
>> we came to an agreement on much, but not all, of these things.
>>
> 
> Great!  Was this a public or invite-only meeting? (I didn't see anything in my mail archives announcing it.)
> 

This meeting was an internal RH meeting to sort out some of the 
internal-to-redhat pieces, but we're working from a policy of being as 
open and transparent about it as possible.

> 
>> First of all, I want to ask that you be patient with us. Changing the
>> way that the hundreds of people on the RHEL team do their work is going
>> to take time. Developing the tooling to make everything work perfectly,
>> and in an automated fashion, is also going to take time. And some of the
>> things that were proposed to the Board will end up changing, based on
>> what doesn’t work, and on the feedback from you, the CentOS community,
>> as well as Red Hat’s customers and partners.
>>
>> A central point of discussion was ensuring transparency. We want to move
>> the RHEL development more into the public, and CentOS Stream is the
>> cornerstone of that.
>>
>> CentOS Stream will be a rolling preview of what is happening in RHEL
>> development. This will allow you to experiment with the next version
>> before it releases, and ensure that what you are working on will work,
>> day one, when the next minor release of RHEL is announced.
>>
> 
> The increased transparency is greatly appreciated and is especially reassuring in light of the IBM acquisition.
> 

Glad to hear.

> 
>> SIGs, too, will be able to build and test against this preview, so that
>> when the next minor release comes out, there will be no surprises.
>>
>> We are working on a FAQ to answer what we anticipate will be at the top
>> of everyone’s mind, but I’ll address a few questions that we’re already
>> receiving.
>>
>> Q: How many streams will there be? Will there be a stream for 8 and
>> another for 9?
>> A: When the development for RHEL 9 begins, the stream for 8 will end. We
>> plan to have a one-year overlap, to allow for transition from one stream
>> to the other. But we do not intend to keep the 8 Stream going for the
>> entirety of the RHEL 8 support window.
>>
>> Q: How can I contribute changes?
>> A: This is still being worked on, and we ask for your patience as we
>> work towards this. This is indeed a goal, but getting the stream itself
>> working perfectly must happen first. Meanwhile, we’re working with the
>> RHEL engineering team on a process where contributions from the
>> community can be considered as part of their regular development
>> workflow. The last thing we want is to set an expectation that we cannot
>> meet, so we want to ensure that we have a workable process before we
>> start asking you for contributions.
>>
>> We encourage your further questions, and look forward to figuring out
>> with you how to make CentOS Stream successful for all constituents.
>>
> 
> I look forward to the further details as they become available.


We'll be open about what we're working on, but I do want to point out 
that for some of this will only be "we're sorting out internal RH 
policy" or whatever.


-- 
Jim Perrin
The CentOS Project | http://www.centos.org
twitter: @BitIntegrity | GPG Key: FA09AD77