proposed universe demotion: virt-manager (or, a request for active maintenance)

[Nikolai K. Bochev]

I am currently ( karmic ) using virt-manager from a PPA ( https://launchpad.net/~dnjl/+archive/virtualization ) along with libvirt and qemu/kvm from there. It would be really nice if virt-manager gets the needed attention, since for now it is really the only viable option if you want to work with KVM under a graphical environment. Not to mention it's the only way to actually view a console of virtual machines and easy add/remove devices/ram/whatever again to a remote KVM server ( yes i know and i can use the CLI commands, but it's a different experience ). You can actually view the cpu/net/hdd loads with virt-manager in real time also, the CLI doesn't give you that , at least not in such a nice way. If ubuntu wants to push KVM as virtualization tech, you should support all the tools for it. 


----- Original Message -----
From: "Dustin Kirkland" <kirkland at canonical.com>
To: "Ubuntu Developers" <ubuntu-devel at lists.ubuntu.com>, "Ubuntu Server Team" <ubuntu-server at lists.ubuntu.com>
Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 8:33:46 PM
Subject: proposed universe demotion: virt-manager (or, a request for active 	maintenance)

Hi,

virt-manager, while being perhaps the only decent GUI for managing
KVM/Xen/QEMU guests in Ubuntu, is largely unmaintained.  Bugs pile up
that we do very little about.
 * https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/virt-manager
 * 113 bugs, 70+ untriaged


This is primarily due to the nature of virt-manager...  It's *really*
a graphical desktop application (python-gtk), but mostly falls under
the domain of the Ubuntu Server Team, which does not deal with
graphical applications, and thus virt-manager does not get the
attention it deserves.  The Server Team does actively maintain the
non-GUI guts of virt-manager (that being libvirt and qemu-kvm), as
well as other numerous non-graphical tools for managing virtual
machines (virsh, UEC, euca2ools, vmbuilder, etc.).

I propose that either:
 a) the Ubuntu Desktop Team provides active maintenance of virt-manager, or
 b) virt-manager is demoted to Universe for Lucid.

As noted on each of these proposed demotions, this doesn't mean
virt-manager would leave the archive.  Merely that it's an apt-get
install from Universe away (which is actually already the case --
virt-manager is currently only seeded on the Ubuntu DVD).

I would much prefer (a), however, if (a) cannot happen, I think (b) is
the most appropriate action, as without a more active maintainer of
the project.  Placement in Universe would more accurately reflect the
support model virt-manager has endured for the last ~2 years, and
possibly even invigorate more support, with all of MOTU having
privileges to fix bugs.

/me dons his firefighting gear, in advance of the oncoming flames...

Thanks,
:-Dustin

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