"What I like least in Ubuntu"

[Daniel Holbach]

Hello everybody,

for a while we've had a section in Ubuntu developer applications [1]
which was named "what I like least in Ubuntu". This is very valuable
feedback, since it comes from (relatively) new contributors who don't
have gotten used to warts and shortcomings in the development world yet.

David Henningson asked me what was being done to this feedback in
general. Members of the DMB told me that they regularly ask questions
about the raised items in the application meetings and try to encourage
the applicant to start a conversation about the problems or get involved
in fixing them.

I thought it was a good idea to summarise the items the applicants
mentioned in the last 6 months (source: [2]) and start a discussion
around them here.

Grouped by category, numbers in parentheses are the number of mentions.


= Development Processes =
 (4) review process:
     - too slow (2)
     - reviewers should go the extra mile (be more humane)
     - there should be more peer review
 (2) developer application docs:
     - too complicated,
     - unclear expectations
 (1) SRU process
 (1) missing mentoring programme
 (1) top-down decisions
 (1) bureaucracy


= QA =
 (3) release cycle:
     - short release cycle brings in many regressions/bugs often, (2)
     - changes in LTS cycle too agressive
 (2) bug triage:
     - too hasty
     - so many bugs, can't give bugs the attention they deserve
 (1) poorly tested software is in the archive


= Development Workflow =
 (3) peers not trying to get stuff into Debian
 (1) shortcomings of UDD


= Software =
 (1) Qt translations not in LP(?)
 (1) U-boot binaries for each supported OMAP3 board
 (1) shortcomings of Java in Debian/Ubuntu
 (1) can't use Magic Mouse fully
 (1) the lack or backwardness of C# bindings
 (1) PulseAudio problems (in the process of being fixed)
 (1) package maintenance of claws


= Other =
 (1) Virtually no community involvement or development into Ubuntu
     backend infrastructure(?)


Feel free to discuss the details on this mailing list, but please
consider renaming the subject of the mail.

Thanks in advance.

Have a great day,
 Daniel

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DeveloperMembershipBoard/ApplicationProcess
[2] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/devel-permissions

-- 
Ubuntu Community Week - 18th-22nd July 2011
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuCommunityWeek