DebConf16: Debian Derivatives

[Hector Oron <hector.oron@gmail.com>]

Hello,

  Debian Conference 16 is now happening in Cape Town and I had the
pleasure to present Debian Derivatives.

  You might find the presentation slides at:
    < https://people.debian.org/~zumbi/talks/derivatives.dc16.pdf >

  Video should be available later from:
    < http://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2016/debconf16/ >

  Let me remind here few remarks that came up during the talk, then we
can take discussion from here if you like:
  * Due to some derivatives violating software licenses, or implying
strong restrictions on trademarks, what can Debian do to overcome
those?
    - We tend to agree to create some sort of reward for Debian
derivatives that follow best practices and comply with rules
technically and legally.
  * It was proposed to create a reference derivative, but that turned
into selecting a standard base of tools, creating documentation and
materials to enable other parties to generate derivatives.
  * A proposed reference toolkit for building Debian derivatives:
(feel free to discuss them)
    - Sources kept in GIT (following DEP-14 GIT layout specification)
      DEP-14: http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep14/
    - Customization, branding tools, merging tools
      Merge-o-matic, merge-our-misc, ... what other tools derivatives
use in this area?
    - Build packages
      + Open Build Service: in Collabora, we are trying to get
packages in Debian for everyone to use
      + Wanna-build: it is apparently hard to setup and many people fail with it
      + Tanglu uses debile, easy to setup and follows Debian
      + Deb-o-matic might be also suitable tool to recommend
      + Jenkins (debian-glue) for building many packages does not
scale well, it might be ok for overlay packages
    - Binary archives
      + reprepro: looks like a nice solution, Tanglu guys found it
hard to use with >30.000 packages
      + dak: it is also usable by mortals nowadays
      + aptly (?)
    - Images/Installer
      + live-build widely used but orphaned
      + live-wrapper being developt, but still work in progress
      + debian-installer
    - QA
      + autopkgtests: standarizing on test case format which can run
in all frameworks would be ideal.
      + Frameworks for running test plans:
        * debci
        * LAVA
        * jenkins
    - Any other useful tools?
      + Application distribution: flatpak, bubblewrap, ostree, appstream
      + Any others?

Please feel free to coment and discuss so we come up with a suitable
set of tools to propose as reference tools to build Debian
derivatives.
I have added this to gobby.debian.org (debconf16>panel>derivatives),
in case someone wants to extend there.

Thanks for your attention!

Regards,
-- 
 Héctor Orón  -.. . -... .. .- -.   -.. . ...- . .-.. --- .--. . .-.