Hello All,
As many of you may have noticed, there has been a *lack of activity with
the Cucumber Linux Project* in the past month and a half. Truthfully,
life has been busy lately and I was starting to suffer from burnout, so
I needed to take a break. Prior to this, I had not had a break of more
than a few days since I started the project back in May of 2016, so I
feel that this has been long overdue.
Now, as I return to work on Cucumber Linux, I am realizing that this
project has grown substantially since its beginnings in 2016 and it has
reached a point where I can no longer do everything on my own. If
Cucumber Linux is going to continue on for the long term, *I need help*.
Here's an *overview of where we stand right now*: Cucumber Linux 2.0 is
still in development and /really needs/ to see a release in the next six
months. While this is happening, Cucumber Linux 1.1 still needs
maintenance. The attempt to transition to GitLab did not work out, and
now I'm migrating everything back to GitHub. Our security tracker and
model is having more and more difficulty keeping up with our needs and
it needs an overhaul.
In order to remedy this, I have come up with the following to *do list
and action plan*, conveniently formatted in Markdown:
# What Needs to be Done
* Improve Security Tracker & Integrate it with the Source Tree
* Security Fixes
* Update Packages for Cucumber Linux 2.0
* Release Cucumber Linux 2.0
* Come up with a new distribution lifecycle to make the developers' lives
easier.
# How to do This
1. Create a maintenance team.
* This team will be broken down into subteams for each supported version of
Cucumber Linux.
* Each subteam will be responsible for building new packages for its version
of Cucumber Linux.
* Idealy, each subteam will have two leaders:
1. A senior branch maintainer.
2. A junior branch maintainer.
* The senior and junior branch maintainers will have the same rights,
capabilities and privileges; the difference in titles is really just a
formailty. The senior title will go to whichever developer has been part of
the Cucumber Linux project longer.
* The senior maintainer, junior maintainer and Scott will be the only ones
with access to that version's build infrastrucutre.
* The senior maintainer and junior maintainer will be responsible for
building and publishing updated packages for their version of Cucumber
Linux.
* The senior and junior branch maintainers will be the ones who merge changes
into their version's source tree.
* The maintenance team's primary goal should be keeping the distribution
stable.
2. Create a security team.
* This team will be responsible for the following one time actions:
* Making a better security tracker.
* Exporting the database from the old tracker to the new one.
* The security team will then be responsible for the following actions:
* Ensure entries for vulnerabilities are made in the security tracker.
* Analyze new vulnerabilities against all supported versions of Cucumber
Linux and determine what actions need to be taken.
* Notify the individual Cucumber Linux branch maintainers of what actions
need to be taken to patch the vulnerability on each supported version of
Cucumber Linux.
* The security team's primary goal should be keeping the distribution secure.
3. Create a development team.
* This team will responsible for developing the unstable version of Cucumber
Linux.
* This team's primary goals should be designing new versions of the
distribution and keeping the packages in the unstable version up to date.
4. Create a few supporting positions/teams:
* Recruitment - This position will be responsible for recruiting new
developers, maintainers and security analysts.
* Public Relations - This position will be responsible for promoting Cucumber
Linux and building a positive community around the project.
# Positions to Fill
* Maintenance Team:
* 1.1
* Senior Branch Maintainer: Scott Court
* Junior Branch Maintainer: **Help Wanted**
* Security Team:
* Security Analysts (Several):
* Scott Court
* **Help Wanted**
* Development Team:
* Development Branch Maintainers
* Senior Branch Maintainer: Scott Court
* Junior Branch Maintainer: **Help Wanted**
* Developers (Several):
* Scott Court
* **Help Wanted**
* Security Tracker Developer: **Help Wanted**
* Supporting Positions
* Recruitment: **Help Wanted**
* Public Relations: **Help Wanted**
In the near(ish) future, both a Senior and Junior Branch Maintainer will be
needed for the Cucumber Linux 2.0 branch. We will put out a call for these
positions as we get closer to a 2.0 stable release.
# Priorities
This is the priority for filling these positions:
1. 1.1 Junior Branch Maintainer
2. Security Tracker Developer
3. Security Analysts
4. Developers
5. Public Relations
6. Recruitment
7. Development Junior Branch Maintainer
For the jobs marked as **Help Wanted**, *I would really appreciate any
help that anyone can give*. If you are interested in any of these jobs
and have some free time, please send me an email. Keep in mind that
right now I am doing literally all of this work, so any contribution in
any department (regardless of what the priority is or how large it is)
will lessen my burden and be much appreciated. Please don't view these
positions as a minimum amount of how much you should contribute, and
certainly feel free to volunteer for more than one position if you'd like.
Thank you for taking the time to read this very long email, and here's
to a bright future for Cucumber Linux.
- Scott
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