Request For Candidates: Application Review Board

[Mathias Gug]

Excerpts from Scott Kitterman's message of Mon Aug 09 17:00:40 -0400 2010:
> On Monday, August 09, 2010 04:57:20 pm Elliot Murphy wrote:
> > On Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 2:25 PM, Scott Kitterman <ubuntu at kitterman.com> 
> > 
> > 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.
> 
> We routinely (and in a light weight way) do this via backports already.
> 

IIUC Ubuntu Backports [1] covers "Only packages currently in Ubuntu's
repositories [are eligible for backporting]". Whereas the Post Release
Apps [2] "only applies to new applications and not existing software
that is present in Ubuntu archives such as main/universe."

[1]: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuBackports#How%20to%20request%20new%20packages
[2]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PostReleaseApps/Process#Solution

-- 
Mathias Gug
Ubuntu Developer  http://www.ubuntu.com