Future of REVU and Debian Mentors

[Bram Neijt]

Hi all,

Wether joining REVU and Debian Mentors is a good idea or not, I can't
say. However, I can tell you that I don't like the "everything through
mail" approach debian has. When I'm getting help on packaging, I like
the fact that IRC and REVU are in sync: if somebody says he/she posted
a comment via IRC, it's there. I think this speed of comments is an
important feature or REVU for eager new package developers.

I hope that the next iteration of REVU will be moving from REVU to
Launchpad and handle the debian/ parts of packages through bazaar, but
that might be way to advanced for now.

My 2c.

Bram

On 7/30/07, Jordan Mantha <mantha at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> On 7/29/07, Scott Kitterman <ubuntu at kitterman.com> wrote:
> > I was recently subscribed to the debian-mentors mail list (working on getting
> > a package uploaded to Debian) and discovered that the author of the Debian
> > Mentors system is getting ready to overhaul that system.
> >
> > That got me thinking...
> >
> > Why do REVU an mentors need to be separate?
>
> A couple thoughts:
>   1. For a new Ubuntu contributor Debian can be a quite intimidating.
> I remember being quite confused trying to figure out *both* Ubuntu and
> Debian while doing my first package from scratch. Of course this is
> also a big reason to "combine forces" between REVU and debian-mentors,
> *if* it can be pulled off.
>   2. There are social differences between Ubuntu and Debian as well as
> just the technical ones. It's sometimes easier to maintain our own
> system. We'd need to get by-in from DDs and the current debian-mentors
> maintainers. For instance, who should be allowed to review/sponsor?
> Most MOTUs are not DDs and vice-versa so I can imagine there would be
> quite a bit we'd need to work out.
>
> > Except for versioning and release, with minor exceptions (like the freeness of
> > GFDL) packages can be made identical for both Debian and Ubuntu.
>
> There is also the issue of native Ubuntu packages. I imagine Debian
> isn't much interested in Ubuntu-specific stuff so we still need to
> deal with those.
>
> > I could see up pooling resources on reviewing new packages and if a MOTU
> > thought a package was ready to upload, then they could upload it and if a DD
> > thought a package was ready, they could sponsor it.  We'd have to deal with
> > version/release, but I'd imagine it could be programmed in.
>
> This is a really interesting suggestion, in fact I don't know why it
> hasn't been suggested before. Perhaps because it would take a large
> amount of Debian/Ubuntu cooperation and we tend to separate packages
> into Debian packages and Ubuntu packages. It also seems to me that
> quite a number of contributors to REVU don't really want to deal with
> Debian, as it is more work for a distro they don't use.
>
> I personally tend to think that with our resources we are better off
> really encouraging people to put their packages through Debian unless
> it is Ubuntu-specific. I found debian-mentors to be very helpful and
> getting a package into Debian fairly easy, once I figured out how
> things worked. I think working on "How does an Ubuntu user/contributor
> get their package into Debian?" would benefit MOTU/Universe. Also
> figuring out how to get Debian to "take on" packages created by Ubuntu
> users. I know several cases where a contributor wanted to get the
> package into Ubuntu rather than Debian because they didn't want to be
> the Debian maintainer.
>
> -Jordan
>
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