diff --git a/_posts/2024-02-08-year-of-agama.md b/_posts/2024-02-08-year-of-agama.md new file mode 100644 index 00000000..78f681fb --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/2024-02-08-year-of-agama.md @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ +--- +layout: post +date: 2024-02-08 12:00:00 +00:00 +title: The Year of Agama +description: Take a look to the Agama roadmap for 2024 +permalink: blog/2024-02-08/year-of-agama +tags: +- Project +- Programming +- Systems Management +- YaST +- Agama +--- + +At the end of 2023 we announced Agama 7 stating that version is the first protype we could consider +to be (quoting ourselves) "functional enough", covering areas such as localization, network +configuration, storage setup, authentication basis and some software selection. Now it's time to go +deeper into every area... and we have a plan for that. + +## The Agama Roadmap for 2024 {#roadmap} + +They say "plans are useless, but planning is indispensable". So we decided to do the indispensable +exercise of planning the first months of 2024 and we came with this useless plan. + +Although we will keep delivering new versions of Agama at a relatively constant pace, we established +two milestones as control points. The first milestone is expected around mid April, the second one +is scheduled to mid July. Then we used those two milestones to group the next tasks we want to +tackle. + +April's milestone should result in a revamped architecture for Agama which should not longer depend +on Cockpit and in a more comprehensive user interface for configuring the storage setup. Both +aspects are explained in depth in this blog post. + +July's milestone 2 should bring mechanisms to make Agama more adaptable and many improvements to +unattended installation, so Agama can start to be considered a worthy contender to AutoYaST. + +Let's dive into the improvements expected for the first milestone. + +## Arquitectural Changes {#architecture} + +So far, we have built Agama on top of the infrastructure provided by the +[Cockpit project](https://cockpit-project.org/). That allowed us to bootstrap the project quickly +without having to invest too much on aspects like authentication or serving files to the web +interface. But after more than a year of Agama development we now have a clear view on how we want +to do certain things, and Cockpit is starting to feel like a limiting factor. + +See more details at [this Github discussion](https://github.com/openSUSE/agama/discussions/1000), +but in short we concluded the small of amount of functionality we are getting out of Cockpit does +not justify the strong dependency, especially now that Cockpit is adopting Python as an integral +part of their runtime. + +So we will invest the following months in changing a bit the approach as described in the mentioned +discussion at Github. That should unblock many paths to improve Agama in the near future. + +## A More Powerful User Interface for the Storage Proposal {#storage} + +The mentioned architectural changes are important for remote or unattended installation and also +regarding integration of Agama into bigger solutions, but they may not be that visible for the +casual user. That doesn't imply next months will be boring in the area of interactive installation. +Quite the opposite, we plan many improvements in the Agama's proposal page that allows to tweak the +storage configuration. + +The new interface aims to be easy enough for newcomers, as you can see in the following mock-up. +But we know (open)SUSE users have big expectations in terms of customizing their setups. Thus, +we updated the [document](https://github.com/openSUSE/agama/blob/master/doc/storage_ui.md) that +describes how the new interface will work and all the possibilities it will offer for those who +decide to go beyond the initial proposal. If you want to check whether your basic needs would be +covered, don't hesitate to take a look to the document and the extended mock-ups included on it. + +{% include blog_img.md alt="Storage proposal" src="storage-mini.png" full_img="storage.png" %} + +If mock-ups and interface descriptions are not your cup of tea, worry not. We already started +implementing some parts of the new interface, so you will be able to try the changes for real +as they land incrementally on upcoming Agama prototypes. + +## openSUSE Conference in the horizon {#conference} + +If you look closely at the dates of both milestones described above, you will notice there is +something happening right in the middle of both - +[openSUSE Conference 2024](https://events.opensuse.org/conferences/oSC24)! + + +year - take Agama to the next level in which it could even replace YaST for some scenarios and +distributions. +Is not only about replacing YaST but also about replacing the inst-sys. Help welcome. + +## Stay in touch {#closing} + +Your contributions and opinions are an important element for that. So don't hesitate to contact +the YaST team at the [YaST Development mailing +list](https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/yast-devel@lists.opensuse.org/), our `#yast` +channel at [Libera.chat](https://libera.chat/) or the [Agama project at +GitHub](https://github.com/openSUSE/agama). + diff --git a/assets/images/blog/2024-02-08/storage-mini.png b/assets/images/blog/2024-02-08/storage-mini.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..0f8d2ef8 Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/blog/2024-02-08/storage-mini.png differ diff --git a/assets/images/blog/2024-02-08/storage.png b/assets/images/blog/2024-02-08/storage.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..385fb31f Binary files /dev/null and b/assets/images/blog/2024-02-08/storage.png differ