GNOME and Ubuntu GNOME

[Steve Langasek]

Hi amjjawad,

On Fri, Sep 26, 2014 at 10:06:23PM +1000, Ali/amjjawad wrote:
> Since I have joined in July 2013 to Ubuntu GNOME until this very moment,
> users never stop complaining about the fact that Ubuntu GNOME can not
> include the latest GNOME release and I have explained that many many times.
> The last time I did that was:

> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-gnome/2014-September/002278.html

> No matter how many times we keep repeating ourselves, this is just a
> bad/unhappy news to our users.

> I am writing to you after I have seen so many negative feedback here:

> http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2014/09/gnome-3-14-wont-included-ubuntu-14-10

> Is there anything whatsoever we could do? GNOME foundation and Ubuntu
> Release Team could work more closely, maybe? is there something I/we are
> not aware of? sorry to assume that - just trying to think the same way our
> users think - but is it because Ubuntu moved to Unity and left GNOME behind
> as not the default DE? can we find a way around that? maybe an official
> statement from Ubuntu Release Team? anything that could reduce the
> complaints?

In your mail to ubuntu-gnome, you write:

  If you take a look at it, and know the fact that within one month, we can't
  test Ubuntu GNOME 14.10 with the latest GNOME (3.14) and then release it,
  etc etc ...

This seems to be a decision of the Ubuntu GNOME Team, not something that
would involve a statement from the Ubuntu Release Team.  In the past, when
the Ubuntu desktop was more closely based on GNOME and there was greater
alignment between the two projects, there was careful synchronization
between the release schedules to ensure that the latest GNOME would be
included in each Ubuntu release.  This was certainly not a trivial amount of
work; it required several engineers to track the upstream betas and point
releases in the last months before release and update the packages regularly
in coordination with the Ubuntu Release Team.  And I certainly understand if
the Ubuntu GNOME Team aren't willing to commit to this same work on a
volunteer basis.  But ultimately this is a decision for the Ubuntu GNOME
team to make (with the support of the Ubuntu Release Team), not for the
release team itself.

I think it's too late to revisit such a decision for 14.10 without
significant downside for the quality of Ubuntu GNOME; but for 15.04, I
recommend that you explicitly consider at the beginning of the release cycle
whether you would like to release with the latest version of GNOME, and
discuss with the wider community to understand how to make this work without
negatively impacting other flavors in the Ubuntu ecosystem.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                    http://www.debian.org/
slangasek at ubuntu.com                                     vorlon at debian.org
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