Abiword 2.6 requires testers, reviewers, and sponsors

[Cody A.W. Somerville]

Hello Developers,

 As you may or may not know, there has been discussion in the last few weeks
regarding including Abiword 2.6 in Hardy. I've spoken with several members
of the release team including Sarah and Martin and the general consensus
seems that being able to ship Abiword 2.6.x would be desirable. From an
Xubuntu POV, this would be highly desirable as we use Abiword as the default
word processor. For further rationale (and I think you'll find some of the
arguments rather convincing), see bug
#202174.<https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/abiword/+bug/202174>

 Ryan Pavlik <https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/%7Eabiryan> has championed
this by doing the legwork of packaging and testing - not an easy task by any
means. Although I haven't personally had the time to do an in depth review
yet, the source package is in main and hence requires a core-dev sponsor.
I'd like to find a (few) core-dev(s) who would be interested in taking the
final steps to get Abiword 2.6 into Hardy.

 Before I start getting flamed for ludicrous thinking, obviously the risks
of making such a change of this type at this point in the release cycle was
a part of the discussion held with the release team. However, as I
understand it, the release team would be willing to approve an FFe if the
packaging was of required caliber and appropriate testing occurred (and both
cases appear to be true).

See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/abiword/+bug/202174 for more
information and
https://edge.launchpad.net/~abiryan/+archive<https://edge.launchpad.net/%7Eabiryan/+archive>for
the PPA where Ryan is working on the packaging. The latest version at
time of writing is abiword -
2.6.2-0ubuntu0~ppa18<http://ppa.launchpad.net/abiryan/ubuntu/pool/main/a/abiword/abiword_2.6.2-0ubuntu0%7Eppa18.dsc>(source
.dsc file).

 If we're unable to generate the interest required from core-devs to get
Abiword sponsored then I'd like to recommend demoting Abiword (completely)
from Main for Hardy as it would be unfeasible to support the 2.4 branch for
three years considering the version we currently ship is already two years
old.

Thanks,

Cody A.W. Somerville
Ubuntu Developer

-- 
Cody A.W. Somerville
Software Engineer
Red Cow Marketing & Technologies, Inc.
Office: 506-458-1290
Toll Free: 1-877-733-2699
Fax: 506-453-9112
Cell: 506-449-5899
Email: cody at redcow.ca
http://www.redcow.ca
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