Proposing a New App Developer Upload Process

[Scott Kitterman]

Riku Voipio <riku.voipio at linaro.org> wrote:

>On 5 September 2012 06:39, Scott Kitterman <ubuntu at kitterman.com>
>wrote:
>> How many
>> solitaire games do we need?  I'm not sure, but I'm confident it's
>fewer than
>> one finds in whatever Android Marketplace is called now.
>
>> Historically, Linux distros have included a curated collection, some
>larger,
>> some smaller, of relevant applications, libraries, etc that can be
>used on the
>> base operating system.  That curation process is one of the real
>strengths of
>> Linux distributions and I think "Oh, let's have a bazillion of
>everything
>> because it's there" is the wrong way to go.
>
>That's a bit Stockholm Syndromish - the collection is only curated for
>packaging quality, not the quality of the application itself or the
>amount of overlapping applications. Observe the  ~20 solitaire game
>packages in Ubuntu not to mention the amount of window managers etc.
>The "curation process" is not to have less or better apps, it is a
>necessity since Debian packaging is complex and any package could ruin
>users install (postinst scripts run as root!).
>
>The extras process should not be about "having gazillion apps like
>android" but rather "having upstreams upload their apps themself like
>they do on android". The key end user story it provides is getting new
>versions of applications when the new application is released rather
>than when the whole distro is upgraded. Right now, precise users can't
>easily install gimp 2.8 or chromium 21. The secondary advantage is
>that Ubuntu can concentrate in core distro and leave applications to
>3rd parties.
>
>These goals can only be reached if the 3rd party uploaded applications
>are insulated so well that the review process can be done mostly
>automatically - else the reviewers will continue to be the bottleneck.

This process won't help either of those was cases.  

Packages are routinely removed from both Debian and Ubuntu for being buggy in their upstream code.  It's not just about packaging.  Additionally, good distro developers maintain a relationship with their upstreams and help them improve the quality of their package.

I agree the curation process has significant room for improvement, but that doesn't make it valueless as is.

We have backports so that, where there is demand, users don't have to wait.  Claims that they do are generally incorrect (backports that require new libraries can be problematic, but the MyApps apps are in no better position).

Unless you want a BSD like o/s - applications split, this new process is not going to affect core apps like Chromium or Gimp.

Scott K