Re: [gnu.misc.discuss,gnu.emacs.gnus] Free software: Packagers vs Developers

[Adam Di Carlo <adam@onshore.com>]

Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:

> I think you should read the thread in gnu.misc.discuss, it has been
> more constructive than what has been going on here, perhaps because
> other developers can participate and phrase some of my points better
> than I can.

Yes, it is a very interesting thread.  Thanks for pointing me to it.

At the risk of raising a general groan from the Debian developers, I
effectively agree with most of what you are saying, with two
exceptions:

  * when to fork (see gnu.misc.discuss for my position on this, which
    is not clear-cut by any means)

  * patches from Debian maintainers are useless

Regarding the latter point, I feel that there is no reason to suppose
that the Debian maintainer might be able to "experience" the bug just
as much as the user has.

My assumption is that there should be a *good* relationship between
upstream maitnainer and Debian packager, and in fact, the Debian
maintainer optimally is considered "friendly" and "experience" by the
upstream maintianer.  In such cases, I would even think the upstream
maintainer might even go so far as to encourage patches from the
Debian maintainer, just as he or she does with other active and
knowledgable contributors to the software.

I know this doesn't always happen, but I'm just pointing out the
optimal relationship here...

--
.....Adam Di Carlo....adam@onShore.com.....<URL:http://www.onShore.com/>