On Apr 14, 2011, at 09:49 AM, Scott Kitterman wrote: >Unless it's a package developed specifically for Ubuntu, it's really not a >bug in the package from an upstream perspective. Some upstreams will choose >to support Ubuntu specific requirements and others won't. For those that >don't, either users will lose out on functionality or we'll have to develop >and maintain Ubuntu specific patches.
I think this is a really important perspective to maintain, and not just in this specific case. We want to innovate in Ubuntu and encourage apps and tools to support those Ubuntu innovations. From an upstream's perspective though, Ubuntu is often just one of many platforms they have to support. Sometimes they'll make a special case for a particular platform (e.g. Windows or OS X), but it can be a tougher decision to support a special case of a special case (i.e. Linux -> Ubuntu). I encountered a similar situation recently with the impact of multiarch on upstream Python, an issue I'll write more about later. But in those cases where we are innovating and encouraging upstream adoption, I think we need to do more to better communicate those changes, and provide longer periods of compatibility, or commit to developing and carrying Ubuntu specific changes for a potentially long time. It's a difficult balance between pushing things forward and maintaining a good and consistent user experience. Cheers, -Barry
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