Re: Debian Installer Jessie RC 3 release
Martin Zobel-Helas writes ("Re: Debian Installer Jessie RC 3 release"):
> Can you please explain why you are doing thins now instead of earlier
> releases? This BR has been open since October! Also i expect mininal
> changes in an RC3, not such massive functional changes.
This is not the first time in this release that I have heard of
someone making a likely-to-be-controversial change immediately before
a freeze deadline of some kind.
In general doing such changes at the last moment can feel very
aggressive to the people who had hoped and expected jessie to ship
with a feature important to them.
I think maintainers should do their utmost to avoid this situation
arising. That means that if there are difficult decisions to be made,
the decisionmaker should clearly (and, as applicable, widely)
communicate their intent, well before the decision becomes final.
Unless there is are very good reasons otherwise, such changes should
also be implemented well before freeze deadlines, just as we want
technically wide-ranging changes to be made early.
That will allow people affected to make representations, try to find
workarounds, etc. Even if no better solution or workaround is found
and the decision is ultimately unchanged, it makes those adversely
affected feel much less bad: they will know that their preferences
have been taken into account and that they have been listened to and
given an opportunity to fix problems - even if ultimately those
efforts don't provide an outcome which everyone is happy with.
As ever, I think the primary responsibility of the maintainers of any
package or area in Debian is the cultivation and management of their
subproject's human relationships, including those both inside and
outside the subproject or Debian as a whole. Writing code, gardening
bugs, doing uploads, and even major design work, can be delegated.
Making controversial decisions - fairly and constructively - cannot be
delegated.
Thanks,
Ian.
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