brainstorming ideas

brainstorming

A few improvements to the dotfiles could be made:

- replicate the work done with vcsh and all the scripts into one utility.
It would work with github/bitbucket and allow easy creation + management of environments and tracking of dotfiles
automated detection of what people have and easily create shared commons etc.

- in addition to that, create a dotfiles community. A location where people can share their config, search for examples and such.
It would also be a documentation tool like that readme program/site thing.
dotfiles would be analyzed for common tricks. e.g this flag/option is used by 90% of people
People who use this also use this e.g vimrc, idevim, cvim, pentadactyl
Alternatives to this are that e.g screen, tmux

- recommended files to track under dotfiles

- browse themes and visual effects of prompts in gifs

- web wizard, blog post, guide to customize stuff e.g custom the toolbar or gnome flashback through the web with the tool manipulating files tracked under and the user can revert


- create mini reddit for each program
  - example i subscribe to metacity
  - someone posts something related to metacity and tiling new program
  - that is upvoted
  - i get it in my newsletter or feed
  - you are automatically subscribed to the programs you use and their associated tags

Workflow from first principles:

- user installs ubuntu
- user wants to customize something
- user googles around
- user customizes but makes mistake
- no easy revert (maybe in addition to git thing, make it dropbox sync simple)

- user installs ubuntu
- user wants to customize something
- user cannot find right keywords
- user cannot find ideas of what to customize e.g other window manager, tiling etc.
- user looks up blogs/examples/themes online

- user installs new program e.g bluetile
- user wants to config and track it
- user would like to browse example of configs, see popular settings

- user moves to another computer
- user would like to reuse aspects of config for new environment

- user connects to new remote computer via ssh
- user wants immediate access to specific programs and config

- program author would like to analyze popular user settings

- developer wants to reach specific users of a certain program to advertise new plugin or fix
- advertise sponsored tools -- like stackshare.io

- mutualism / stackshare / alternative.to
- import / export / integrate with those tools and dotfiles
- easily create your stackshare profile from your dotfiles

- dotfiles documentation
- like readme.io but for a dotfile

- documentation
- discovery
- management & tracking
- analytics & improving

Think about product growth ideas for related sites and read about their philosophy:

summary

book / guide for dotfiles

  1. promote new project

  2. offers guide based on current state and compare different dotfiles management tools/solutions

dotfiles management & tracking

  1. vcsh improvements (syncing, auto-detecting files, tight integration (like etckeeper), easier set up + manipulation)

  2. extend to etckeeper

  3. sane integrations with zsh/bash/fish

dotfiles documentation + configuration

  1. one location for all configurations of all projects (wiki?)

  2. track users modifications, examples, analysis and such

  3. build communities around tools ala stackshare

  4. discovery