Morten Kjeldgaard dijo [Sat, Dec 06, 2008 at 02:27:00PM +0100]: > > For whom is the Debian distribution? Is it created to satisfy the > needs of only the packagers and developers? If so, it is absolutely > logical to get rid of everything a couple of years past expiry date. > > To be clear, we are not talking about applications for which a > replacement -- often better -- exists. We are talking about > libraries. In my opinion, Debian is also for programmers who don't > package their software for the distribution, but distribute it > themselves or don't distribute it at all. > > I mentioned science programs, and these are typical examples where > the authors are not programmers who are geekily fascinated with > every new incarnation of a graphics toolkit, but are more interested > in developing the methods, applicability and scope of their own > algorithms. If the menu system and dialogue boxes work, why spend > more time on it? > > You may disagree with the above reasoning, but it is a fact of life > of many Debian users, and it is arrogant to disregard.
I like your reasoning, but I disagree. As a distribution, we have a committment to give proper support for our users. But if a package is dead upstream, the best advice you can give your users is, "you have ~2 years (i.e. a stable release cycle) to do this change, please allocate some resources to it". And, yes, I understand your point regarding science programs (I work at a University and know the ways of academics). And I also understand there is _great_ work done by people who have completely retired and won't maintain it anymore. That's where we step in. If _you_ want a given science program to keep being part of Debian, well... The author will be very grateful if you help him port it to a modern incarnation of this toolkit. It will also increase his visibility and decrease his frustration, as most distributions don't (or won't at some point in time) ship Gtk1.2 - If he decides to switch away from Debian or has a student which likes Fedora for his laptop, he will still want to install his software. Integration- and quality-wise, it is _our_ job to deprecate bitrotten code. > GTK+ 1.2 is not just any old library. It was the first truly open > and free graphics toolkit of excellent quality, an alternative to > Motif and the ugly Xaw widget sets, and was eagerly embraced by > everyone. This is a central and historic piece of software. And, hey, libc5 is also a core piece of our collective history - The first widely distributed version of a free, GNU C library! Oh, and so is XFree, particularly the 3.x branch. Not to forget, of course, Emacs19 and XEmacs. Greetings, -- Gunnar Wolf - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - (+52-55)5623-0154 / 1451-2244 PGP key 1024D/8BB527AF 2001-10-23 Fingerprint: 0C79 D2D1 2C4E 9CE4 5973 F800 D80E F35A 8BB5 27AF -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
