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Re: relationship with Ubuntu - call for feedback



Hey there Allison,

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 10:57:02AM -0700, Allison Randal wrote:
> […] 
> The new Application Review board (ARB) in Ubuntu takes it as part of the
> primary charter to direct developers upstream to Debian, with some
> helpful guidance in how to package, and how to take up maintaining their
> package in Debian. One submission (out of a total of 6) that went
> through the ARB has already gone upstream to Debian, and is moving
> out-of-cycle updates to Ubuntu Backports. Another currently under review
> used to be packaged in Debian (lost maintainer), so we're guiding the
> developer in how to revive it.
> 
> The developers we get through the ARB are a different level than Debian
> usually works with. Many have no packaging experience at all, some
> submit tarballs, some don't even know how to create tarballs. It's a bit
> like tier 1 mentoring. The overall goal is still to train them up, in
> the expectation that some will get more and more involved, and
> eventually join the ranks of DM/DD as well as Ubuntu developers.

Thanks a lot for replying. I think that there is value in having this
kind of intensive mentorship, and if that's what the ARB is doing then I
am happy. You know what my concerns are so I won't bother going over
them again.

I would like to see developer.u.c updated to reflect this. Currently it
promotes a "click, click, click, published" workflow that really isn't
realistic. As I mentioned in my initial mail I would really like to see
some explanation of where Ubuntu and these applications fit in withing
the ecosystem. The site also promotes ARB packaging standards and not
archive ones so there will be some reworking required if authors are to
submit elsewhere. (Also for some reason it requires non-XDG dirs for
configuration)

I see value in the ARB as a firewall between green app authors
interacting with the FOSS community for the first time and something
like Debian Mentors.

Looking forward to talking about this more at UDS,
 
-- 
Iain Lane                                  [ iain@orangesquash.org.uk ]
Debian Developer                                   [ laney@debian.org ]
Ubuntu Developer                                   [ laney@ubuntu.com ]
PhD student                                       [ ial@cs.nott.ac.uk ]

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