[gPXE] Moving forward together

[Marty Connor]

Hello Everyone,

First I'd like to thank everyone for your generous and kind support this
year, and particularly over the last few months.

It has been a challenging year for our project and for me personally,
and it is your ongoing help and support has kept me hopeful and positive
that we will find a good way forward.

I'd now like to start a discussion of how we can continue development of
gPXE, and more generally how we move forward as a project now that
Michael Brown (mcb30, our former lead developer) has moved on to other
pursuits.

We are a productive, innovative, and cordial community of developers and
users, and I'd like us to continue to develop gPXE (and whatever else we
choose to) with the positive attitude that has distinguished our project
since it began in 1995.

As a community Open Source project, how we develop our software is as
important as the software itself.

I also believe that it is because we license our work under the GPL that
people feel comfortable contributing time, code, and effort, knowing
that it will be a community asset that enriches us all.

So let's start thinking about where we are now.  Here's how I see things
right now:

  - A lot of people use gPXE and are happy with what it does.
  - There is significant interest from developers who would like to
continue to improve and extend gPXE

Here are a couple of big things I think we need to do:

  - Develop a model and method to get new code into gPXE.
    - How do patches get into the codebase?
    - Should we have a stable and a release branch?
  - Improve our documentation.
    - Organize our wiki better to make it easier to find useful information

It's going to take some time to get things moving smoothly forward
again, but I have no doubt that together we can do it.

This project is much more than just the code we produce -- it is the
expression of a community that enjoys working together to create
something useful.  That desire to create something wonderful remains in
me, and I hope in you too.

So let's talk about how we move forward together.

I have many ideas on the subject, but first I'd like to hear from you
about what you'd like to see, both on the development side of things,
and on the community side too.

It's a privilege to work with good people doing something positive.

So, what do you think we should do next?  Why do you think so?

I look forward to hearing your ideas!

/ Marty /