RFC: -server packages universe demotions and main promotions

[Les Harris]

On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 5:52 AM, Matt Zimmerman <mdz at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 08:39:16PM +0000, James Troup wrote:
>> Matt Zimmerman <mdz at ubuntu.com> writes:
>>
>> > On Fri, Dec 04, 2009 at 01:33:42PM -0500, Mathias Gug wrote:
>> >> == Proposed main promotion ==
>> >>
>> >>  # oidentd
>> >
>> > According to Chuck's analysis in
>> > https://blueprints.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/server-lucid-canonical-application-support
>> > this is dead upstream, and so would be unsuitable for main.
>>
>> So I have a couple of concerns with this conclusion:
>>
>>  a) there's plenty of other software in main that's either just as
>>     'dead' (e.g. the last upstream release of zlib was also 2006 (same
>>     as oidentd) and mawk in *1996*) or has had longer periods of
>>     non-activity (e.g. ed was unmaintained upstream from 1994 to 2006)
>>
>>  b) if a program is mostly feature complete, free of any critical or
>>     important bugs and demonstrably works for users, why is there a
>>     strict requirement for an active upstream doing releases?
>>
>> That said, my primary concern was that we have an identd in main; I
>> don't much care that it's oidentd; if there's a better alternative I'd
>> be happy with (and to migrate to) that.
>
> Can you shed some light on why it's important to you to have an identd in
> main?  The primary use I'm aware of is for IRC clients, and even that seems
> dubious these days.
>
> --
>  - mdz

I have to agree with mdz on this.  The primary use of identd is for
connecting to irc networks that require it or for so called
'bouncers'.  Even in this case, many networks which would prefer the
use of identd will still function without an ident response albeit by
marking the user in some fashion (typically a tilde prepended to their
username).

The usefulness of identd is debatable as a mechanism which generates
additional security for such networks but that is not germane to this
discussion.

The strongest argument for inclusion I guess would be that ubuntu
includes an irc client in the form of Empathy and that identd packages
are typically very small bitwise.

Neither seems strong enough to support the inclusion of such a niche
service by default in Ubuntu.  Those users who want an identd service
are an apt-get install oidentd away from it after all.

Les