Request For Candidates: Application Review Board

[Elliot Murphy]

On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 2:25 PM, Scott Kitterman <ubuntu at kitterman.com> wrote:
> On Thursday, August 05, 2010 08:42:58 pm Jono Bacon wrote:
>> As such, if you are an
>> application developer and want to get your app in the software center,
>> the process is probably too complex and involved.
>
> In what way is this new process simpler and less involved?

Not trying to answer for Jono, but I think that snippet of the
description doesn't hit the real benefit of the new process (as I see
it). I don't think the submission process or the review process is
necessarily less labor here than it would be for going through REVU. I
think the key difference is one of timing.

As an application developer, when I want to ship a LOLCats app or
custom healthcare app for endocrinologists who speak Tagalog on
iPhone, Android, Windows, or OS X, I ship that app on top of a stable
and already released operating system. With Ubuntu/Debian, if I want
the app to show up in software center I need to ship the app as part
of the operating system itself, subject to the same rigorous process
that is essential for developing a stable base platform, because the
current process doesn't distinguish between the rules for updating
libc and the rules for shipping a LOLCats app.

To me, the key benefit of this new process is providing a way for app
developers to ship applications on top of stable, released versions of
Ubuntu. A key part of the review process will be rejecting things that
are too invasive/destabilizing (changing the platform rather than
being plain apps running on top of the platform). I think it will be
greatly beneficial for application developers to be able to deliver
new apps on top of Maverick a full year after it has shipped.
-- 
Elliot Murphy | https://launchpad.net/~statik/