Hi everybody,
Long story short, I can no longer in good conscience be the primary
maintainer of (most) Java packages in Fedora. I am not using any of
them, I don't like Java or any other languages targeting the JVM, and
don't get me started on the horrid Java ecosystem. Recently I've been
spending 40-60 hours per week at my desk, and I just don't have the
capacity to feel guilty for not taking care of those packages any
longer.
Thank you for your hard efforts these last couple of years. I know what it is like to feel guilty for not being able to keep up the load but it is an impossible task to do for any length of time. In the 15 years we have tried to integrate Java into Fedora, it has been clear that this language does not meld well with our way of doing things.
Thank you also for having a detailed plan for handling this. I think it shows to others that it is ok to let things go when it is no longer fun or fulfilling.
New versions and even security issues have been piling up for months
(just look at the SIG's taiga board). Other people tried to step up
for the "new" Java SIG (@java-maint-sig), but other than myself,
nobody has been triaging new bugs in Java packages. Java package
maintainers from Red Hat have been exceptionally unhelpful, and have
not substantially contributed to Java packages in Fedora in years.
Even the Modules that were heralded as "the solution" have stagnated.
On the other hand, Mat Booth and two members of the DogTag PKI team
have been really helpful, but Mat is busy fighting the Eclipse
dumpster fire most of the time, and the other two have since both left
Red Hat for greener pastures. And since I see no way for the situation
to improve, there's only one honest thing left that I can do:
I will orphan all Java packages I am the main admin of, later today.
Since this is the majority of remaining Java software in Fedora (~180
packages), I expect at a decent amount of dependent packages will be
affected. However, given the utter lack of Java package maintainers
and the pitiful state of the overall language ecosystem, I would
strongly urge affected maintainers to drop dependencies on Java, if at
all possible.
Maybe other members of the java-maint-sig will pick up the orphaned
packages, if they're still here. Or maybe it's finally time to let
Java packages die. Nobody seems to care either way.
Fabio
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