Re: variants Re: Re: debian vs ubuntu and knoppix
Hi, Joey.
On Oct 12 2005, Joey Hess wrote:
> Rogério Brito wrote:
> > The Ubuntu people are synchronizing their work with Debian all the
> > time
>
> Ubuntu has a general policy of not sending patches back to Debian
> developers.
I didn't know that.
> They make their patches available on a website in lumps[1] of varying
> utility and expect Debian to go look at them and integrate them back
> in.
I also didn't know that. And seeing the base-config case, it is
surprising to see the huge patches that they made.
This would surely be a case where Linus Torvalds's policy of sending a
series of patches, each doing just a single thing and applied on the top
of the ones before it would be appropriate.
> This doesn't work as well as some other techniques could.
Indeed. How has been the communication between the projects?
> Most of the cases of Ubuntu patches being integrated back into Debian
> are cases where:
>
> a. The Ubuntu developer is a maintainer of the Debian package.
>
> b. A Debian developer has spare time to go look at patches that might
> or might not be even applicable to Debian.
Seeing the number of changelog messages with ubuntu release names, I
thought that the interaction was bigger.
> c. Possibly the utnubu (note spelling) project filtered a patch back
> from Ubuntu to Debian.
I just visited the utnubu project and was surprised to know that it
actually happened, as it shouldn't even have existed in the first place.
It surely seems to be as a lack of proper contact between the projects.
:-( Sad thing, since a joint effort would have made things progress
faster.
> Actually Debian has had a tradition of NMUs for much longer than team
> maintenance.
But NMUs are/were (please, correct me if I am wrong here) viewed as a
last resort, for not "stepping in the maintainer's toes". And sometimes,
the maintainer doesn't give a signal of life for a long time. Say, more
than one year.
In this case, team maintainership would be much better. And I am happy
to see this more and more used in Debian.
> All you have to do is bring a real bug to another developer's
> attention.
The problem is that doing this isn't as easy as it sounds. Even if you
have a good, short, clear patch, getting another developer's attention
isn't that easy.
Or, at least, it wasn't the last times I tried. But, then, perhaps, I
contacted, the "wrong" developers. :-)
> (Which, it's worth noting, you were able to do with vrms. :-P)
Indeed. :-)
Thank you, Rogério Brito.
--
Rogério Brito : rbrito@ime.usp.br : http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito
Homepage of the algorithms package : http://algorithms.berlios.de
Homepage on freshmeat: http://freshmeat.net/projects/algorithms/
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