On 2021-01-04 at 04:27, Adrian Bunk wrote: > On Thu, Dec 31, 2020 at 02:16:23PM +0100, Bernd Zeimetz wrote: > >> Although the high number of packages makes me wonder, if at least a >> quick MIA check of the maintainers is warranted, or - if those packages >> are needed in bullseye at all. > > Maintainership status is a very poor indicator whether users might need > a package. > > Some obscure stuff is well maintained, like m68k and Hurd being among > our architectures with the most active maintainers. > > It is very hard and high effort for people who are not already active in > Debian development to get a change into Debian or take responsibility > for a package. Debian is not a welcoming place for new contributors. > > A normal user won't even notice that an important package is missing > before bullseye is stable. As a demonstrating example of this last point: I track testing, rather than stable, and subscribe to debian-devel, and therefore am not even a "normal" user in this sense. A package I use regularly (moosic) was removed from testing back in November of 2019, and from unstable back in April of 2020. I didn't notice anything until October or November of 2020 (when the Python 3 transition tried to remove the package from my computer), and didn't realize that what I had noticed meant the package had been removed from the archive - even testing, much less unstable - until December of 2020. I've adopted it upstream (it had been abandoned by its original author back in 2011) and fixed the issues which had led to its removal, and its Debian maintainer - who hadn't noticed the removal from unstable either, until looking at it again after I provided a new upstream version - has agreed to handle the packaging again, but it's not at all clear whether it'll be ready and make it through NEW again ahead of the release freeze. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature