[Mageia-dev] Update of backport, policy proposal

Sun Jun 26 14:49:37 CEST 2011

2011/6/26 Michael Scherer <misc at zarb.org>:
+> Le dimanche 26 juin 2011 à 11:58 +0300, atilla ontas a écrit :
+>> 2011/6/26 Wolfgang Bornath <molch.b at googlemail.com>:
+>> > A short reality check from userside:
+>> >
+>> > If foo-1.0 is in Mageia 1 and foo-1.1 is released upstream
+>> >  - foo-1.1 will likely be integrated in Cauldron very soon after
+>> >  - users will request to have foo-1.1 in Mageia 1
+>> >  - if Mageia will not provide it then there will soon be local
+>> > repositories where local packagers will do a "backport" for their
+>> > friends.
+>> >
+>> > This may not be what Mageia backport policy will allow but we can not
+>> > avoid people doing and using this, no matter how many warning signs we
+>> > will publish. This has to be taken into account here.
+>> >
+>> > When a policy is found it has to be communicated very well, especially
+>> > if that policy means that the user can not have foo-1.1 in his stable
+>> > Mageia 1.
+>> >
+>> > This is important because former Mandriva users were used to get
+>> > almost all new versions backported, if not officially then in 3rd
+>> > party repos like MIB or MUD.
+>> >
+>> > --
+>> > wobo
+>> >
+>
+>> As wobo mentioned, people like latest and greatest software. I think,
+>> except a few users will use unofficial 3rd party repos to get latest
+>> software. While i was maintaining MVT (Mandriva Turkiye) repository,
+>> our users asked for GNOME 2.32 while Mandriva have GNOME 2.30 on
+>> official release.
+>
+> And others people mentioned that people want also stable software and do
+> not want changes. But as I said, what people want is not as important
+> than what we can do, and so the decision is in the end of those that do
+> the work rather than what people want, because if no one does the work,
+> nothing happen.
+
+Well, in principle this is correct, not in this case as I have
+explained as a very common example. You can decide whatever you want,
+if a user wants a certain package and his friend will pack it for him
+and puts it up on a server, publishing the existence - then you will
+see what happens. You know by experience how popular such 3rd-party
+repos can become (see MIB, MUD), just because somebody had a different
+view than the official view.
+In short: no matter what is more important or not, you have to find a
+compromise between the (understandable) search for optimal workflow,
+security on one side and the real world of the users on the other. I
+think, the key here is non-technical communication of the
+circumstances, like "why we can't have foo 1.2 as backport from
+Cauldron to Mageia 1".
+
+-- 
+wobo
+