Re: Status of Plasma 5.18/5.19?
Hi,
more than two months ago, Jeremy Potter asked a valid question.
On Sat, Jun 27, 2020 at 05:08:48PM -0700, Jeremy Potter wrote:
> Debian Sid is still on Plasma 5.17, meanwhile 5.18 LTS and 5.19 have
> already been released with 5.20 around the corner. I searched the mailing
> lists and it seems like this was discussed a few months ago and the KDE
> development team were working on a patch, and Norbert Preining (who is
> controversial for some reason?) had created a third-party repository with
> Plasma 5.18.
>
> What is the status on this now? Is there anything I can do to help? I'm new
> to Debian packaging but I've done packaging for another distro and I'm
> willing to learn.
This resulted in an, eh, exchange of polite and less than polite words,
but not in an answer that "normal people" (and that includes me as a DD
with nearly two decades of experience) would understand.
Yes, Debian sid/testing is not a rolling release, but a monster like KDE
Plasma will most probably need months to stabilize and migrate. If the
repeated "is not a rolling release" means that people think that it
would work to do one upload two weeks before the bullseye freeze, I
violently disagree. KDE in Debian unstable hasn't seen an update in more
than a year, we're two upstream releases behind.
This is not only a pity for all those people using Debian unstable, it
is also driving away people to Ubuntu or KDE Neon, therefore reducing
testing personpower shuold new packages be uploaded to Debian at some
time. Packaging bugs that happened on a system that probably has seen
crossgrades from Debian unstable to some Ubuntu and back are going to be
much harder to triage than if they were from a pure Debian unstable
system.
Frankly, I don't care about personal beefs here, I care about Debian and
it's users. If there is a conflict, I urge all participants to take one
big step back and re-evaluate what of a work base is still left there,
and see what can be done to get KDE Plasma packaging in the future. From
what I see, all sides to have some deficiencies in diplomacy of
communication, but as responsible volunteers taking care of a HUGE
software package, one of the MAJOR desktop environments in the world of
Free Software, there is probably not much room for personal quarrels.
Please consider making a list of things that need doing, with precise
description of the work, possible more exact then "please write quality
patches" or "don't break Debian".
Packaging of KDE Plasma needs to speed itself up NOW, or Debian bullseye
will either ship with a blatantly outdated version of KDE Plasma, or
without KDE Plasma at all. Both those possibilities look less than
attractive for the project.
I have a somewhat difficult and abrasive personality myself, so I'll try
to shut up in the discussion that might follow this e-mail, but I feel
like somebody needed to put a gavel on the table and remind the people
in charge not ony of their rights as package maintainers, but also of
their responsibility as members of Debian and the Free Software
Community.
Please don't break KDE and don't harm Debian.
Greetings
Marc
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Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header
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