[maemo-developers] Maintenance of ported apps

[From: Bernd Stramm]

On 01/02/10 05:49 AM, Jeremiah Foster wrote:
> On Feb 1, 2010, at 7:13 AM, Ville M. Vainio wrote:
>
>    
>> On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 4:57 AM,<maemo at bitblit.net>  wrote:
>>
>>      
>>> Im very interested in porting apps to Maemo but I have concerns about the
>>> long-term maintenance of the apps.
>>>        
> Unfortunately the process is not codified, many assumptions are made. For example, the expectation is that if you have found an application or library you like in debian and have ported it to maemo, you will continue to take care of it as the OS and app changes.
>
> Now, there are no loss of privileges if you fail to keep the package up to date or if you go MIA, like there is in debian. It is a bit of a grey area as to what happens if someone else wants to take over your package if it is out of date. This process is somewhat informal in debian with some unwritten rules. One of the unwritten rules is that it is considered inappropriate to "hijack" someone else's package. I think this is a good rule and something we should consider.
>
>    
This area is sort of problematic in many respects. Hijacking someone's 
package can suppress good work and good people. And it is quite 
disrespectful.

On the other hand, there is that expectation that if person X provides a 
package (through porting or through a fresh new package), then person X 
has to provide free updates for the next 100 years. Not very respectful 
either.


Bernd