Help wanted: Maintenance of universe and multiverse (Re: New mailing list/section of website proposal for Unsupported Software)

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Thu, Dec 16, 2004 at 03:16:39PM -0500, thully at umich.edu wrote:

> There is much software that Ubuntu doesn't wish to support in main, either
> because it doesn't fit in with the base desktop, it is non-free, or it has
> legal issues.  I propose that for this software, Ubuntu should
> 
> 1) Create a mailing list, ubuntu-unsupported , for discussions of such software
> and bugs with the usage of this software on Ubuntu (this is where all problems
> in non-free software could be handled).
> 2) Add a category to Bugzilla which allows the reporting of bugs in universe
> packages (which are free software) there.
> 3) Work on unifying all information on said software into one section on the
> wiki, UnsupportedSoftware (this would include RestrictedFormats, info on
> universe packages, etc.)
> 
> Users and developers could help maintain this section as they wanted , and it
> would be a unified place for community support for all things Ubuntu doesn't
> offer official support.  This would resolve a lot of concerns I have, and would
> help ensure that this software functioned well on Ubuntu without requiring
> official support from the developers.
> 
> Any comments on this idea?  Does it sound good, and could it be implemented?

This was already discussed during the regularly scheduled Community Council
meeting a couple of months ago:

http://people.ubuntulinux.org/~mako/cc-summary-20041026.html

The general idea is that:

- A team will be formed, to be comprised of members of the Ubuntu community
  with the interest and technical skills to care for the packages in
  Ubuntu's universe and multiverse components

- This team should maintain some level of communication and coordination
  with Debian

- Project resources can be devoted to supporting this team in various ways
  (a mailing list, bug tracking facilities, etc.)

Folks who are interested in participating in this team should follow up
here, so that we can discuss the particulars.

-- 
 - mdz