[CentOS-devel] CentOS Streams q&a

Tue Sep 24 20:48:55 UTC 2019
Troy Dawson <tdawson at redhat.com>

On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 1:33 PM Jim Perrin <jperrin at centos.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> On 9/24/19 12:03 PM, Greg Bailey wrote:
> > On 9/24/19 11:24 AM, Jim Perrin wrote:
> >> Okay, now that the release is out, and everything is announced properly.
> >> I'm happy to answer questions about Stream.
> >
> > I assume that the FAQ page at https://wiki.centos.org/FAQ will grow to
> > include some of the Q&A discussed here?
> >
>
> That is a safe assumption.
>
> > My question originates from the (lack of) available desktops available
> > with CentOS 8.  Would alternative desktops such as MATE (or KDE, etc.)
> > continue to be published via the EPEL repository, or could new packages
> > be introduced via "streams"?  How does the contribution model for
> > streams differ from EPEL packagers?
>
>
> Desktops would continue to be done via EPEL, or via a desktop SIG if
> someone wanted to create one. We've probably overloaded the term, but
> please don't conflate the name CentOS Stream, with AppStream, module
> streams. The 'official' CentOS Stream packages will reflect RHEL
> development code. If it's not accepted in RHEL development it won't be
> in the 'official' Stream release.
>
> Ignoring lots of the "we haven't built it yet" mechanics, contributing
> to a SIG or EPEL should be reasonably similar. There may be guidelines
> or policy variance, but that should be about it.
>

As one of the people building KDE in EPEL, I'd rather we didn't pull
more desktops into RHEL and/or CentOS Stream.
That sounds really backwards because I've always loved KDE, but here's why.

KDE always had the problem with stagnation in RHEL.  It's the nature
of an enterprise release.  But now that it's not in there, and we have
the promise of modules in EPEL8, we are able to have KDE stay in sync
with the latest stable Fedora.  No more 6 year old KDE.  Ya!!
Plus, once we get that smoothed out, we can have another module stream
that keeps in sync with the Rawhide KDE.
And ... if someone wants to take it on, they can even take one of
those and make it stable, and maintain KDE on that version for the
next 5 to 10 years.  (Won't be me, but if someone wants to, they can.)

Anyway, what I'm saying is that I'd much rather desktops stay in EPEL
rather than be pulled into CentOS streaming, and then possibly RHEL.

Troy