Timely processing of the queue for current release. Was: "Strawman: Change the Ubuntu Release Cycle"

[Cory K.]

Scott Kitterman wrote:
> On Wed, 2 Jan 2008 17:21:14 +0200 "Pär Lidén" <par.liden at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> Well, maybe there should be two different versions of the LTS release:
>> One for the home-users where the applications are upgraded
>> And another for corporate use, where they are not.
>>     
>
> I've been following this thread and am curious how backports doesn't support this already?

It does.

> What could be changed to better solve this problem?
> Scott K.
>   

Regular scheduled processing of the queue. I haven't seen anywhere
posted that there is one. Am I mistaken?

Obviously coming from a personal interest here, mppenc has sat for a
while. https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/gutsy/+queue I realize it was around
the holidays and that's cool. I just hope I just missed a post/wiki page
somewhere that says "The queue is processed the last week of every
month" or something to that effect.

Timely processing of the queue for the current release is crucial for
stopping 3rd party repos IMO. Though, I'm starting to feel that the
processes we have in place are a hinderer in some cases as this has just
happened to us (Ubuntu Studio team) and the person actually made a good
case for doing it outside of Ubuntu.

ie: Ardour is important to the Ubuntu Studio team. Upstream is very
active. For us to update in the current release we have to make sure
Debian has the current release. We then file a sync request. File a bug
to backport then wait for the queue to be processed.

This process can often take months in which time a even newer release
has been pushed. Time to start over.

QA aside, there's a reason why GetDeb continues to do well. And while I
completely understand the reasoning for our processes, it just feels
like we can't keep up with the user base and its needs because of the
workload and hoops to jump through.

-Cory K. (Ubuntu Studio lead)