Karanbir Singh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: [re: ubuntu] > how many open source projects have they been > working on that are now gold ?
Bear in mind that while GPL requires you to publish source of distributed code, it does not require you to contribute back upstream. That's a funda- mental part of GPL freedom too. So, ubuntu is not contributing back upstream into debian. I am convinced this is self correcting in the long term. In the short term it is handy for ubuntu packagers since they have easy control over what they need to fix. In the long term however debian upstream will diverge more and more from ubuntu. This is a bad thing for all since it means more work all round, fixes can't go back upstream smoothly, and maintaining ubuntu will get more painful. The process is handily summarized in this diagram: http://mysite.verizon.net/kevin.mark/attribution.png Notice the flow of fixes from ubuntu is not going anywhere beyond ubuntu. This is clearly a workflow process issue. I expect it will be formally addressed and fixed. Basically by adding an arrow in the diagram pointing upstream to debian and enforcing it as policy for ubuntu packagers. In the same line of thought, Joey Hess, a prominent debian maintainer, has suggested that divergence from upstream be treated as a bug (http://lwn.net/Articles/283038/) since he believes that upstream fixing is wiser than ad-hoc fixing for a distribution package. PJ _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
