brainstorming for UDS-N - Package Selection and Defaults

[Marius Gedminas]

On Fri, Oct 08, 2010 at 09:55:04AM +0200, Matthias Klose wrote:
> On 07.10.2010 22:19, Barry Warsaw wrote:
> > I think the reason to have overlap in Python versions between LTS releases is
> > for the benefit of end users who have applications that are not in our
> > archive.  What I mean is that, yes, we can theoretically fix all the
> > compatibility problems for packages in main and universe, but we can do
> > nothing about third party applications and libraries that are not in our
> > archives.  These may be applications that our users have built or bought, have
> > installed and running on the current production Lucid machines.
> >
> > We could support Python 2.6 in a PPA, but I actually think that will be much
> > more work for us.  It has the potential for containing every package in main
> > and universe.  Imagine Important Corporation X has a mission critical Python
> > application that is not yet ported to Python 2.7.  Their choices are
> >
> > * Don't upgrade to the next LTS
> > * Request Python 2.6 compatible builds for dependencies in the official PPA
> > * Expend the resources to port their application to 2.7
> > * Forget packaging and build everything themselves
> >
> > As an end user, none of those would be very appealing.
> >
> > As a policy, I do think it makes sense for us to have one Python version
> > overlap between LTS releases.
> 
> Are there concrete examples of these applications for end users (no, I wouldn't 
> count Launchpad to to it ;).

I'm an end-user/sysadmin (as well as a Python application developer).

Various older versions of Zope do not support Python 2.6.  When I
upgraded hardy to lucid, I was surprised to find Python 2.5 was gone
from the archives.  Felix Krull's "deadsnakes" PPA saved me from
unpleasant downtime.

> 20MB are 2% of the CD space, and I suppose an end user would care more about 
> shipping something useful like a language pack, another application, but not a 
> bunch of unused python modules.

I've no interest in having old Python versions on the CD.  I would like
to have them easily installable (from main/universe; PPA is a bit of a
hassle but better than nothing).

Marius Gedminas
-- 
A real friend isn't someone you use once and then throw away.
A real friend is someone you can use over and over again.
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