Re: Is Ubuntu a debian derivative or is it a fork?

[Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org (va, manoj)>]

On Tue, 31 May 2005 19:47:19 -0700, Matt Zimmerman <mdz@ubuntu.com> said: 

> On Tue, May 31, 2005 at 09:00:33PM -0500, John Goerzen wrote:
>> In the ubuntu case in particular, I wish that they would be more
>> proactive in sending their patches to the Debian maintainers.
>> Asking us Debian folk to go to an obscure site somewhere, wade
>> through listings of thousands of diffs, and find changes is
>> difficult.  For example, Python 2.4 is in sid, and I don't mind
>> making my packages use it now.  I'd appreciate any and all diffs
>> from ubuntu folks.

> I don't want to repeat the discussion about pushing patches; there's
> a perfectly reasonable one already in the list archives.  There are
> good reasons why we do this the way that we do.

        Well, while this may well be OK for how Ubuntu treats
 upstream, Debian has long had a tradition of actively pushing
 patches upstream. I collect, and test patches, I jump whatever hoops
 upstream bug tracking makes me jump through, in order to push triaged
 bug reports and fixes upstream.

        I would hope Ubuntu is as proactive with its upstream as I
 expect Debian to be.

> In the not-so-distant future, a huge proportion of Ubuntu
> development will take place in Arch branches, with the intent of
> promoting more efficient collaboration both within Ubuntu and with
> Debian.

        All my development already happens in arch archives, and yet
 I do not expect my upstreams to come trawling through my arch
 repositories looking for fixes that my users have, and their other
 users do not.

        Indeed, with the number of Debian derived distributions
 inching ever closer to the triple digit mark, it would  be a
 significant drain on my resources to have to discover where, if at
 all, these 90+ distributions provide patches for my system, and try
 to fish out relevant patches, determine what problem the patch was
 trying to solve, and then go on to the next 30 source package X 90+
 distribution repo on the list.

        Obviously, I have no control over how derived distributions
 conduct their business, or where they allocate resources. But I would
 not consider doing development in a public repo an adequate
 substitute for not pushing bug reports and fixes upstream, using
 their BTS, for any of the packages I maintain.

        manoj
-- 
Your good nature will bring unbounded happiness.
Manoj Srivastava   <srivasta@debian.org>  <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
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