Updates for universe: are there any?

[Wouter Stomp]

I was wondering, how are updates for packages from universe handled?
Is it the same as for programs from main, i.e. only security updates?
Or no updates at all? The reason I am asking is that there are some
packages for hoary in universe that are partly or completely useless
because of some bugs they have. The following I know of, but there are
probably more:

- gdesklets: due to some problem with gdesklets-data, it is completely
non-functional. Almost every day someone on the forums or mailing
lists will ask how they can install gdesklets. There are complete
howto's written about it...

- electricsheep: non-functional, don't know why

- streamtuner: live365 plugin doesn't connect anymore to the live365
server, making 1/3 of the program nonfunctional

Off course there is the backport project which solves some problems,
but in cases like these, I think it would be more appropriate to
provide an update than requiring people to use backports. Also letting
people wait for 6 months is not really an option I think. And for all
of these patches or updates exist which will solve the problems. After
all it is not very useful to provide a package in the repositories
which is of no use to anyone.

Wouter.