I think the proper subject for this mail would have been: Does the Python maintainer still have Debian as his priority? [1]
Shifting priority seems to be a fairly common pattern (to differing degrees) for DDs employed by Canonical. Not at all surprising of course, and not even something to hold against them. When someone has an employer that sets very ambitious release targets and schedules, it will be very clear where his/her priorities are. Especially in the month or two months immediately leading up to an Ubuntu release. Additional problem is that when you're employed to work on Ubuntu, any work on Debian is very, very similar to the paid work, which makes it harder to keep up the "volunteer" work. IMO the solution is simple. *We* as the Debian project should make sure that core packages of *our* distribution are maintained by people who's first priority is Debian, and not another distribution. Of course anybody can have real life (as in paid work) interfering with volunteer work, but when the paid work is for another (competing) distribution, the conflict of interest is much more obvious and harmful to Debian thatn it would be for other employment and thus we have be more vigilant and be more ready to ensure the continuity of the maintenance of our packages by actively transferring (lead) maintainership. From what I've seen about Python maintenance in this and earlier threads it seems clear that action is warranted. We have had similar situations in the past that have taken *way* to long to resolve. Let's not delay any longer this time. Let's simply give Matthias an ultimatum for presenting a plan for Python in Debian and (both action and timeline). If he fails to provide that or if the Debian project is not happy with the plan, others get to take over the lead in maintaining it. There's nothing personal in that. The simple question is: do you still want to maintain Python *for Debian*, and are you willing to commit to the effort needed to do that properly. If not, thanks a lot for all your work in the past, but it's time to move on and hand over to others. If different maintainers take over the lead, there is no reason why Matthias could not remain involved, but that would be something the new maintainers and he should work out. Cheers, FJP [1] IMO this question is fair since Matthias is listed as sole maintainer for Python packages. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
