This transcript captures a segment of an X2Go project meeting, beginning with a State of the Union address highlighting persistent challenges: a lack of motivated volunteers, precarious funding, and significant technical debt, particularly concerning build/hosting infrastructure and the transition away from X11. The chairman discusses his delayed resignation due to the lack of a successor and the negative consequences of inaction, outlining a plan for a new member, Naira, to potentially take over the chair role in March 2025 after training. The main portion of the meeting involves a brainstorming and discussion session focused on preparing an application for the Sovrin Tech fund. Proposed project areas include addressing IPv6 issues, enhancing cross-platform client support (especially for Mac OS and Windows), improving the build infrastructure, developing the HTML client and broker capabilities, adding VNC support, and potentially improving the Thin Client Edition Live. Challenges in the application process, such as estimating complex technical work and adhering to strict word limits, are discussed, along with identifying relevant usage scenarios (universities, emergency services). The need for structured communication and collaboration (e.g., filing detailed issues in GitLab) for funded work is emphasized. The discussion on the Better Place donation platform is deferred.
X2Go Project Status and Funding Discussion
0:02 Recurring Challenges: The speaker presents issues unchanged since the last State of the Union address: lack of motivated and skilled volunteers, unstable funding, technical debt in build/hosting infrastructure, and challenges with Linux distributions phasing out X11 in favor of Wayland.
0:44 Leadership Dilemma: The chairman offered his resignation in June due to these issues but remained as no one else stepped up. Inaction resulted in minimal project progress beyond essential maintenance and events.
1:18 Delayed Resignation & Succession Plan: Despite planning to resign again, the chairman decided against it to avoid further disruption. A new member, Naira, has volunteered for a managerial assistant role and is being trained to potentially take over the chair position at the next board elections in early March 2025.
2:54 Future Event Planning: The date for the EX to go Gathering 2025 will be announced on or after March 2nd, 2025, once the new board is settled.
3:13 Recent Events Attended: The project participated in several events since June, including Kuk Kiel, Linux Day in Dornbirn, Interop Tokyo, and T-DOSE online, giving talks and/or hosting booths.
4:05 Bug Squashing Parties: Three virtual bug squashing parties were hosted, but scheduling remains difficult. A proposal for a December session was debated and ultimately rejected due to holiday season conflicts.
6:35 EX to go Gathering 2025: The likely locations are Linux Hotel Essen or Schauspielhaus Stuttgart. The most probable date is late Q2 or early Q3 2025 due to summer holidays and weather. A "Spread" event is not expected in 2025, with the Gathering being the primary focus.
12:53 Funding Discussion - Sovrin Tech Fund: The second part of the meeting focuses on applying for the Sovrin Tech fund to secure project funding.
13:30 Application Progress: Two online meetings have occurred, and 35-40 large non-commercial users (mainly universities) were contacted for letters of recommendation, providing valuable feedback.
14:37 Application Work Schedule: Mike, freed up after Nov 23rd, suggests scheduling regular 2-hour weekly meetings (Thursdays 9-11 am initially, potentially Mondays) to work on the application text. The first two are scheduled for Nov 28th and Dec 5th.
21:09 Difficulty Estimating Timelines: Mike expresses difficulty estimating the time needed for application tasks, especially for unknown areas like Windows/Mac client support, highlighting the risk of underestimating and turning it into a hobby project.
22:21 Proposed Project Areas for Funding: The application aims to fund work on:
Improving IPv6-only support.
Releasing EX to Go client with K drive support for Linux, Mac OS, and Windows (requires build infrastructure updates).
Evaluating/improving Mac OS build infrastructure (potentially buying Mac Minis vs. expensive/outdated hosting).
Launching EX to Go client with Wayland display support.
Integrating FreeRDP for RDP over NX/K drive.
Enhancing the HTML client and embedding it into a web UI.
Developing a broker configuration backend for databases (MySQL/PostgreSQL) and a web interface for session management (profile configuration, ACLs, load balancing).
Adding VNC support (direct client connection or third backend) - considered lower priority.
Direct Gnome RDP access - considered lower priority.
Working on libopenSSH wrapper, Python X2Go, and libx2go client - considered lowest priority due to estimation difficulty.
32:01 Application Writing Challenges: Stefan voices concerns about answering ambiguous questions and adhering to strict word limits (as low as 100-300 words per section) while describing the complex project scope. Mike reassures that condensing can improve clarity and they must focus on the most important messages.
35:47 Usage Scenarios: Discussion includes using examples like the former German Red Cross emergency setup (decided to keep it with a note, despite no longer being active) and current university use cases (mathematics teaching and research) to illustrate the technology's value in the application.
49:39 Thin Client Edition (TCE) Live for Funding? Stefan is tasked with researching if improving TCE live for government/research facilities (considering secure boot, trust chain issues) makes sense for the application.
50:00 TCE Live Development Issues: Challenges with building and packaging TCE live (documentation focus, Debian packaging conflicts, local git repo dependency, mini desktop mode incompleteness) are highlighted as areas needing developer input.
1:03:00 Call for Detailed Issues: Mike requests Stefan file specific technical issues with details (configs, steps) in GitLab to make the problems solvable for developers.
1:05:08 Parallelization & Workforce: The team structure for funded work is discussed (Mihai on build, speaker on broker, Stefan on QA/testing). Exploring involving Alex (HTML client) is considered, noting the need for potential code review due to his coding style.
1:11:19 Better Place Topic Deferred: The discussion about the "Better Place" donation collection platform is rescheduled to a separate meeting on Wednesday.
1:11:49 Meeting Adjourned: The current meeting concludes.