Updates for universe: are there any?

[Myles Green]

On Sat, 2005-16-07 at 01:23 +0200, Wouter Stomp wrote:
> 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?

Universe is officially *un*-supported. Having said that, there *is* the
MOTU or Masters Of The Universe. This is a team of people, like you, who
spot packages they want updated and they update/patch/upgrade them as
necessary. See the Wiki site for details.

> 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.

Feel free to contact (a) member(s) of the MOTU about joining so you can
correct the above problems :-)

HTH, Myles
-- 
Myles Green <rmg57 at telus.net>