[Trisquel-devel] New Trisquel 8 development images

[Rubén Rodríguez]

The new images are available in the usual place:
http://jenkins.trisquel.info/makeiso/iso/

Following up discussion on the previous "Freedom Friday" meetings, I've
wrapped up the needed updates to the trisquel-meta package:
https://devel.trisquel.info/trisquel/trisquel-packages/commit/766eaf2420175fa08cd8151ae2eb8c6e3d9b5757
https://devel.trisquel.info/trisquel/trisquel-packages/commit/fa125285f2e04a3d4440527ddb14b88ce08546a1

As a result the iso build script now uses metapackages to do package
selection, instead of a hardcoded package list. This was a long
back-and-forth process to move all features from the GNOME-fallback
desktop packages to the Mate ones. A lot of cleaning is still needed for
the LXDE, Sugar, GNOME and KDE metapackages.

Other tasks included updates to the trisquel-desktop-common-data
package, screensaver, boot splash, free-firmware, and gnome-app-install,
along with the makeiso script itself.

## Testing

Please test as many features in the images as possible, and report all
outstanding bugs as replies in this thread. Given the amount of changes
done, pay special attention to:

 * Internationalization: try different languages if you know them
enough, look for untranslated applications. If you can, check that fonts
for non-latin scripts work correctly. Test the international keyboard
input system.
 * Accessibility: test that the screen reader and other accessibility
features work as expected.
 * Devices: try printers, cd read/write, bluetooth, cameras, and any
other common devices you may have around.

Note that as discussed in development meetings, the intention is to
release Trisquel 8 soon as possible and move the development effort to 9
(to be based on Ubuntu 18.04), so small annoyances will not be
considered blockers (but all the described systems need to be usable).

## Pending work

The main items still needing work in order to finish the release are:

 * Testing/QA
 * FSDG issues listed in merge requests, and other MR review/approval
 * Deployment and testing of the upgrade system, for Trisquel 7 users
 * Artwork

My next focus will be to clear up the merge request queue.

I'll be taking a 3 week break starting this weekend, so I'll not be
available for the Freedom Friday meetings. It should be a good time for
a final round of testing.

Happy testing and holidays!

Ruben