gnome-screensaver - inappropriate for inclusion in breezy

[Jeff Waugh]

Hi,

We began a switch from xscreensaver to gnome-screensaver 5 days ago, clearly
within the safe zone of the feature, UI and preview freezes.

gnome-screensaver is only 5 months old. Although elements of it have been
copied from xscreensaver, in terms of security, stability, general maturity
and long term testing, it should be regarded as a new work.

It has received very little testing within Ubuntu or upstream, though it's
worth pointing out that it is installed by default, unmodified, as part of
the GNOME selection in OpenSUSE. That doesn't really offset the lack of real
testing though. :-)

Due to gnome-screensaver's relative immaturity, some assumed functionality
does not yet exist, such as power management control, being able to disable
it programatically (when playing movies, for instance), changing per-hack
settings, etc. Many of these have been raised on the ubuntu-devel mailing
list, or the Ubuntu and GNOME bugzillas.

Finally, there are a number of usability issues with the preference and lock
dialogues which, while entirely resolveable, are inappropriate at this stage
of the release process. On top of that, Oliver has way more important work
to do on Edubuntu. ;-)

Now, gnome-screensaver is going to *ROCK* for dapper, as it will be proposed
for inclusion in GNOME 2.14, and will be getting a lot of community love and
testing. We'll be able to track it throughout the dapper release process,
and improve it where necessary... see all of the above. ;-) Plus, even if we
do not ship gnome-screensaver by default in breezy, it will still be very
easy to switch to it. Just a matter of installing the package. That means we
get better testing without the risk. :-)

Given the discussion about it today, Jane has suggested that we discuss it
at tonight's TB meeting, and come up with a recommendation for sabdfl (who
requested the change, so it can't be overruled without his okay, and he's
taking a break this week).

Thanks,

- Jeff

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