Mira Groupware

Moving to Bazaar

Max Bossino — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:58:38 +0000

We have finally made the move to the Bazaar version control system. Hooray! One of the main motivations for doing this was the brilliant integration of Bazaar with Launchpad, the project management software guiding the development of software of the likes of Ubuntu, Me TV and the Bazaar project itself. Launchpad provides free hosting of Bazaar branches and supplies bug tracker, translation, Q&A and blueprint systems which tie in very neatly, allowing you to assign bugs and blueprint to particular branches of code. The best part is that we now have one single location for all the code-related aspects of Mira (our Launchpad homepage) and this website for the documentation. Well, and SourceForge on the side to manage our mailing list.

Anyway, if you are interested in grabbing the latest and hottest version of Mira then you should look no further than a terminal or cmd window. As long as you have Bazaar installed, which is just a few clicks away no matter what Operating System you use, all you have to do is run the following command from a terminal window and you’re good to go:

bzr branch lp:/~mira-core-development-team/mira/trunk mira

That will download the latest revision of Mira’s source code into a mira subdirectory. Isn’t that brilliant?

In the future, if you wish to download the latest revisions you may run the following command (as long as you have cd‘d into the mira directory you created before):

bzr update

It couldn’t be any easier!

GSoC 2008: We Just Missed Out!

Max Bossino — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:34:43 +0000

It pains me to say that Mira Groupware was not accepted as a mentoring organisation for the Google Summer of Code 2008 programme. We were actually very close to being chosen and were even short-listed in the final 220 organisations, but we just missed out in the end because we did not have quite enough Ideas/Project proposals on our Ideas page. It’s a shame because it would have been an extremely good opportunity to accelerate development on Mira above the current tepid pace, but at least we have learnt what we need to do to improve our chances of being selected next year.

In any case, I would like to thank Alan and Thurston for offering to be mentors in this programme and for helping out with the documentation and application process. It looks like we’ll have to keep pushing forwards, slowly but surely, until next year!

Is It A Bird?…

Max Bossino — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:16:25 +0000

Welcome to the new website for Mira Groupware, the Open Source groupware platform which is set to revolutionise online communication and collaboration! After much discussion, we decided that the previous website was not only unsuitable for an Open Source project’s homepage, due to a lack of space and relevant bursts of information, but also rather ugly. The result is, well, you’re feasting your eyes on it now!

We’re still in the process of migrating all the data from our old place, and at times things could get a little bumpy — if that happens, please do let us know: drop us a line via the contact form so we can sort it out. All should be running fluidly very soon, and we’ll transform the Wiki and Forum to match the new design in the not too distant future.

You can also expect more frequent news updates right here, on our homepage. So, don’t forget to return soon, or simply subscribe to our RSS feed.

Move to MiraGroupware.org

Max Bossino — Sun, 27 May 2007 10:46:38 +0000

Mira Groupware now has its very own website, as you can see, which will be its centre of information and development. Here you will find not only Mira’s documentation wiki but also its forum, and hopefully a few more community-orientated services will appear in the near future. A nice touch is that MiraGroupware.org will change colour as it progresses through the stages of development: Planning, Alpha, Beta, Pre-Release and Stable, so do keep an eye out for that. (Editor: Not any more! We now have a new website. :) )

The Planning stage is arguably the most important stage of Mira’s development. It’s where both you and I get to decide what features are implemented by default, how Mira operates, how scalable it will be, how you would like to use it, how you would like it to look and discuss everything relating to its architecture and design. For this reason I encourage you to post what you want Mira to be like on Mira’s Development mailing list, so that the developers may consider as many ideas as possible and thus set out the blueprints for the future versions of Mira, and indeed the first.

User interface mockups, such as the one above, are also welcome, as we may then decide which interface is the easiest to use and is also visually appealing so that Mira does not become a bore to operate. It should have a professional look, but it shouldn’t be too dull either.

I have high hopes for Mira, as do others, and I’m sincerely hoping that our efforts pay off and that, perhaps in a few months or years, you will have an Open Source alternative to Groove which is more scalable, more powerful and more complete than the competition on your desktop.