Getting new packages into Ubuntu

[Evan Broder]

On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Bryce Harrington <bryce at canonical.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 12:28:03PM +0200, Daniel Holbach wrote:
>> Hello everybody,
>>
>> with the help of the nice people on the Debian derivatives mailing list,
>> we updated
>>
>>       https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/NewPackages
>>
>> Particularly the section about getting a package into Debian.
>>
>> The feedback I've got lately about getting new packages into Ubuntu is
>> that it's still quite complicated and you need unreal amounts of
>> patience to get your package in.
>>
>> There's a number of different approaches you can take currently:
>>
>>  - get it into Debian, sync from there
>>  - make use of the App Review Board process
>>  - make use of REVU
>>  - short-circuit by getting in touch with a team who sees an
>>    immediate need to get it in
>>
>> Is there anything we can do to speed up the process and make it more
>> obvious how to proceed?
>>
>> Thanks for your thoughts in advance.
>
> Isolate specifically what must be done by human reviewers, and make that
> really fun and easy.  Then automate everything else.
>
> Bryce

If we're going to focus on making this easier, can we focus on the
first two options? Historically speaking, packages that live solely in
Ubuntu and aren't part of any release's user experience tend to end up
largely orphaned by a MOTU team that's overworked and understaffed.

Can we work with Debian to make their mentorship process better (I
know they've already been doing a bunch of work with things like
mentors.debian.net, though I don't know how well it's working), and
then make sure we have good documentation on the process?

- Evan