Hi,
so far, Tails has been offering the option to unlock one's persistent
volume in read-only mode; that is, the data is available to the user
and programs, it can be read and seemingly modified, but any change to
it is discarded when Tails is shut down.
The new Greeter, that we merged a week ago into the branch where we
are porting Tails to Debian 9 (Stretch), doesn't offer this option
anymore. Alan explained me [1] that one the one hand, "Read-only
persistence was not in the final mockups that were agreed for
implementation"; and on the other hand, "it was not totally removed by
design", and there has been discussion about *where* in the Greeter
this option should be displayed.
[1]
https://labs.riseup.net/code/issues/12093
I find this situation a little bit confusing. I need it to be
clarified before the next Stretch sprint (Jan 30 - Feb 3): large parts
of our automated test suite currently rely on read-only persistence,
so some of the work I have on my plate is blocked until a solution is
made and implemented.
In favor of re-adding this feature:
* I'm told that some users are happily using it. I don't know exactly
what's the practical use case, but it seems they have one :)
* Saves me some work, as I don't have to adjust the test suite to make
it not rely on this option.
* Saves tech writers some work, as they neither have to drop the part
of our documentation that mentions read-only persistence, nor to
document in the release notes that the option is gone.
In favor of dropping this feature:
* Avoids the rush needed this month to 1. discuss where and how to
display it; 2. implement the agreed upon design.
* It is not well-tested as most people don't use it, and we don't
exercise it much in our automated test suite (we use it as an
optimization only there). Example: it has happened that some Tails
features were broken when this option was enabled, and this was
reported by users many, many months later.
* Some Tails features are known to be broken when this option is
enabled, e.g. Additional Software Packages and Persistence Setup.
Given the lack of users and testing, it's unclear whether these are
isolated cases, or more stuff is broken.
All in all, it feels like this feature is a second-class one, with
lower quality and support level than most of the rest of Tails.
This feels wrong given we're in the process of polishing Tails and
making the overall UX more consistent. IMO we should drop it, and only
consider re-adding it if/once someone volunteers to fix and maintain
it; then we can have the discussion about how it shall be integrated
into the Greeter.
Thoughts, feelings, opinions?
Cheers,
--
intrigeri
