Bug handling in Ubuntu

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

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Olе Streicher wrote on 21/10/13 16:24:
> ...
> 
> When I find a bug specific to Ubuntu, and I do a search for whether
> it is known, I always find lots of old bugs that seem to be never
> read by anyone; just the submitter (and mybe some others that got
> the same problem). Sometimes even a patch exists, or a certain bug
> is fixed in a recent Ubuntu release but the bug still remains
> open.
> 
> Two examples:
> 
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-session/+bug/138194 dated from
> 2007, still open without any hint that someone is working on it

There's also no hint that it occurs in any version of Ubuntu later
than 11.10! If there was, it would be more interesting to a potential
bug-fixer.

> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sqlite3/+bug/876661 
> Trivial to fix; a patch was proposed after a year, but was
> (probably?) ignored. Fixed somehow, but the bug is still open.

A Debian bug report was mentioned in the comments, but not linked to
the Ubuntu report (using "Also affects distribution"). If it had been,
Launchpad would have noticed and displayed that it was fixed in Debian.

> etc. This is quite annoying and also makes the Ubuntu bug database 
> worthless. On Debian, my experience for bug report is quite
> opposite BTW.

Ubuntu has a vastly greater ratio of users to developers than Debian,
so it also has a much greater ratio of bug reporters to developers.

> So I do not understand: it is worth to report a bug? Who is
> looking for them? What is the use of the bug database?
> 
> ...

The same as the purpose of any bug database: to help finite developers
make best use of their time.

The more QA volunteers are able to garden bug reports -- attaching
relevant files, marking duplicates, setting Importance, marking old
reports as Incomplete if they're not reproducible in the latest
version, and so on -- the better use developers can make of their time.
<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HelpingWithBugs>

- -- 
mpt

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