Debian KDE maintainer burnout??? (was: Warning)

[Mark Purcell <msp@debian.org>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

On Tue, 31 Dec 2002 02:09, Karolina Lindqvist wrote:
> I updated to latest debian "unstable" level, and my KDE does not work
> anymore. These break-everything debian updates makes me kind of tired
> sometimes.
[...]
> I really don't know what is updated that breaks everything, and don't feel
> I want to bother with it right now. Other builds of KDE3 are out

On Tue, 31 Dec 2002 05:58, Ralf Nolden wrote:
> Yes. I removed it to avoid further mess. Please be patient, I'm rebuilding
> the branch from today. *sigh*. I'll upload as soon as packages are
> finished.

Ralf, Karolina,

I would just like to publically thank you for the work you have done with the 
KDE3 branch and your Debian packages. Your efforts in putting together the 
Debian KDE 3 packages has been greatly appreciated by many Debian users who 
would otherwise not be able to access the KDE3 environment.

I am a little concerned that you both seem to be trying to maintain the Debian 
KDE3 packages with some constraints which other Debian package maintainers do 
not have to put up with.  These constraints are even more important given the 
size and complexity of KDE3.

While I fully understand the gcc-3.2 issues managing a package suite the size 
of KDE3 requires management of a whole lot of issues other than just ABI 
compatability. You have both been doing a fantastic job trying to manage 
these other issues and the fact that many of us can run Debian KDE3 packages 
is testament to your management of these issues.

Some of the Debian resources which are available to other packages, but the 
Debian KDE3 packages have been excluded from using include the Bug Tracking 
System, the Package tracking system, quality assurance web portal, Package 
mirrors, multi-architecture autobuilders as well as the management framework 
of having progressively tested distributions through; stable; testing; 
unstable and experimental distributions. Also not to mention a distributed 
approach to package management though a large number of package maintainers 
who can work together on achieving a common release/ software base. (Most 
third party KDE3 applications are no longer available as Debian packages.)

With all these Debian resources available management of something as complex 
as KDE3 should be possible. However, without full access to the resources of 
Debian trying to maintain KDE3 as a single person effort is frustrating and 
complex. So again I would like to thank both of you for your efforts in 
attempting such a feat.

I have made some suggestions in the past about creating a 'staging ground' for 
KDE3 packages (using the experimental distribution).  A place were the full 
resources of Debian can be applied to the inclusion and development of a 
stable KDE.  

KDE 3.0 was released nine months ago, there has been extensive effort expended 
in the generation of Debian packages, but all of this effort has been 
constrained to preclude the full resources of Debian to the development of 
KDE3. The net result has been that KDE2.2 remains the officially supported 
version in Debian GNU/Linux.

I for one, and I'm sure there would be many others in the Debian community, 
would be happy for either or both of you to become the official Debian 
maintainers for KDE.  Goodness knows you have been doing that job in a 
defacto capacity for a number of months...

If you get nothing else out this this message, please accept my thanks for 
your efforts, but surely as a Debian community we can do better..

Mark
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQE+EM8EoCzanz0IthIRAoZFAJ9eIfVYkjXvTCVlyRpzDBkbg3FwywCfSAqi
PDYw3Q08+F2z0f8pSmBTcMg=
=qtDJ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----