Getting new packages into Ubuntu

[Stefano Zacchiroli]

On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 01:27:42PM -0700, Allison Randal wrote:
> But, I think the deeper question is whether developers here in Ubuntu,
> who would have been looking at the REVU queues, would be willing to
> spend that time reviewing the same package proposals for Debian. You
> don't have to be a DD or DM to do package reviews in the new
> mentors.debian.net. It's beneficial to direct new packages upstream, but
> we also need to recognize the workload we're adding to the Debian
> volunteers if we send all new package reviews to Debian.

Let me comment that it's great to see people here discuss the practice
of getting packages into Debian first, as a mean to have then in Ubuntu.
Doing so is indeed the best way to contribute Free Software not only to
Debian and Ubuntu, but also to other hundreds of derived distributions
out there that benefit from contributions that reach Debian.

I also want to AOL the concern mentioned in this thread that packaging
is not a one shot activity, rather it is a medium-term commitment in
maintaining a package in good shape for the needs of a, or several,
distros. AFAICT this is the case both in Ubuntu and Debian, with
differences only in how each distro deals with the problem of
disappearing maintainers / maintenance team members. This point should
be made very clear to any wannabe packager, no matter the distro.

Up to now mentoring efforts were put both on the Debian side (via
debian-mentors and mentors.d.n) and on the Ubuntu side (via REVU, I
believe). The same goes for quality assurance efforts to get rid of
neglected packages over time.  Shifting reviews and QA to Debian is the
right thing to do (for the reasons mentioned above), but should be
sustainable. This is even more so because, as I understand, on the
Ubuntu side you were already lacking some mentoring power. Merely
summing that "negative delta" to the current debian-mentors load risks
to be detrimental to all involved distros, if done lightly.

I suggest that you work with the people who have been animating over the
past few years the debian-mentors community to ensure that mentoring
activities are sustainable, no matter the load or the number of
derivatives distro that want to participate into it. Many great
proposals have been advanced, and partly already implemented, in recent
years. They have been discussed at length in at least a couple of
DebConf11 events:

- http://penta.debconf.org/dc11_schedule/events/777.en.html
- http://penta.debconf.org/dc11_schedule/events/781.en.html

I'll be happy to put an of you in touch with Debian individuals active
on that front. They have way more experience than me on debian-mentors.
I'm sure they can provide more concrete suggestions than what I'm doing
with this mail.

I'd be great to have a single mentoring community for Debian-based
distros and it has chances to scale better than several such
communities.

Cheers.
-- 
Stefano Zacchiroli     zack@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} . o .
Maître de conférences   ......   http://upsilon.cc/zack   ......   . . o
Debian Project Leader    .......   @zack on identi.ca   .......    o o o
« the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club »
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