[maemo-developers] Ask for removal of some packages from Extras Fremantle repository

[From: Matan Ziv-Av]

On Mon, 29 Mar 2010, Attila Csipa wrote:

> On Monday 29 March 2010 08:07:06 Marius Vollmer wrote:
>> all the good stuff in them, because they know that these repositories
>> are well-maintained and backed by a community: packages are not
>> abandoned, and they can expect them to be updated when necessary.
>
> Yes, we have not talked about this much but if you take a look at the
> gronmayer list now, you'll see that a good chunk of repos there has shut down,
> taking into oblivion their packages, too, and to make things worse, they
> nearly all miss the source section (most likely an unintentional oversight).

With the current state of extras-devel, long term availability is hardly 
a point that should be raised against other repositories. At least the 
source is available.

> Also, consider that the QA/testing process we have is a 'light' (and
> occasionally buggy ;) version of what happens in large distros (i.e. if you
> have trouble complying with Maemo's requirements, Debian stable compliance is
> lightyears away). The historical distros have all been through this phase of
> 'zillion packages from all over the net' and evolved towards centralized
> repositories for a reason (while keeping the *ability* to install whatever you
> want). I still think (and will lobby for) maemo.org supported PPAs as a
> recommended (not forced !) solution for testing/devel/procedural problems,
> instead of general repository anarchy.

The distros you compare have a lot of packagers who go through the QA 
process, not the developers. Maemo, on the other hand, has very few 
people who take other people's program and package them. Thus, you 
expect the developers to go through the QA process themselves, so this 
comparison is not really valid.


-- 
Matan Ziv-Av.                         matan at svgalib.org