Re: RFC: Changing the NM system
I'm no maintainer but I'm using Debian since version 1.1, and I in my
experience it's a myth that the new Debian maintainers generally do a
worse job than the long-term maintainers do.
> Adrian Bunk writes:
> If we don't have severe look at the quality of the work of new
> maintainers [...]
Why do you want to look at the quality of the new maintainers' work
only?
For example, once I discovered a bug in a package maintained by an
active, long-term maintainer and when I looked at the BTS I found out
that the someone else had reported this bug *240* *days* ago. The bug
reporter had also attached a patch that perfectly fixed the bug.
After I contacted the maintainer it took three more weeks to fix the
package.
Or take for example the console-data package. I have the console-data
package on hold for many months now since every update broke my German
keyboard settings. According to the BTS this bug still hasn't been
fixed. console-data is the only package that really annoys me and it
isn't maintained by any of the new maintainers.
I could continue this list.
Obviously things like these happen to new /and/ long-term maintainers.
At least, the few examples some of you gave don't justify a change of
the NM system.
> Every Debian developer represents Debian (e.g. at exhibitions)
Do you think that all the long-term maintainers always represent
Debian in a favourable way?
Here's an example from a recent thread in debian-devel called "Woody
Progress":
Andreas Schuldei> In fact we ultimatly exist to do them [the users]
good and please them.
Manoj Srivastava> Bullshit.
>From the same thread:
Manoj Srivastava> [...] I, personally, work for Debian so that I can
have a high quality Linux distribution. Having it
useful to other people, espescially people I like,
is a neat secondary thing.
Am I beholden to the unwashed masses out there?
No way.
I don't think that public statements like these help Debian. In fact,
these statements don't comply with Debian's Social Contract which
clearly says that "Our Priorities are Our Users and Free Software. We
will be guided by the needs of our users and the free-software
community. We will place their interests first in our priorities."
Obviously the standards for new maintainers are already higher than
they used to be since every "applicant is expected to agree with the
Debian philosophy". Maybe some applicant managers ought to check the
understanding of the Debian philosophy more carefully but do you
really think that a change of the NM system is needed?
I'm getting the impression that some of you, for whatever reasons,
want to keep the group of Debian maintainers small.
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