RPMs Farm - Voting Frequently Asked Questions

Why an RPM-voting system?

RPM-voting is intended to be an effective and easy-to-use solution addressing several issues:

1. Among many new applications that get released, how does Mandriva know which new or updated applications should be added to the distribution?
2. Many "volunteers" already create RPMs for the Mandriva Linux distribution, but how do these packagers know which applications to package, and how do users find out about their work? A real quality control process for the packages that the volunteers are building is needed.
3. For Mandriva , producing updates for older versions of the distribution is very expensive, doesn't provide any additional income, and distracts developers from working on the upcoming distribution, but many users still want updates/new software for their old distribution now.

Who can vote or ask for new applications?

Each Mandriva Club member receives a limited number of votes each week (one vote/week at the moment). These votes can be used either to request a new application, or to vote for an existing request.

Non-members are allowed to view the results, but cannot influence the voting in any way.

Who can download the applications?

During the "testing" phase, all applications can be downloaded directly from Mandriva Club server, and are therefore accessible only to Club members.

Once an application passes the "testing" phase, the resulting RPM is uploaded to public servers and can be used by anyone - with the exception of proprietary software which remains on the Club server and is accessible only to Club members.

Who can upload new applications?

Uploads of new applications are reserved to "Volunteers" and Mandriva employees. More information about how the volunteers are organized is available in the "Volunteers" section of the Club FAQ.

How long does it take to get a new RPM done this way?

The answer to this question depends on the popularity of the new request, the amount of work required to get the application packaged, and on the "good will" of our volunteers.

Of course it could happen that nobody would be game to build a particular package, while at the same time it could also happen that someone packages an application from the bottom of the list; but most frequently-requested applications certainly have a larger likelihood of being packaged than ones from the bottom of the list.

Why don't I have more voting rights?

The more voting rights each Club member has, the less each vote is worth. On the other hand, the higher the number of votes for an application, the more chance the votes will get noticed. We'll have to experiment a bit with different limits in order to find the optimal number of votes.

What happens with "forgotten entries"?

Since everyone is free to add new requests, it's quite likely that we'll have some false or duplicated "requests" in the voting system. In order to keep the system usable, all of the entries that nobody seems to care about will be simply removed from the database.