OpenOffice 3.1

[Matthew Woehlke]

Kevin Kofler wrote:
> Adam Williamson wrote:
> It's true that inconsistency is bad, and that's the problem with the current
> policy, but there's no better solution. At best, we can give more hints to
> the maintainers, but there's no policy which works for all packages.
> Hardcoded bureaucracy doesn't really work, in particular, the 2 "all or
> nothing" solutions you propose:
> 
>> This is why I say the only two policies that can really work optimally
>> are "minimal necessary changes to fix strictly identified bugs and
>> security flaws" or "update whatever you like". Either is valid, but both
>> have distinct implications for the user experience, so we need to pick
>> based on what user experience we want, and message that consistently so
>> that users know what to expect.
> 
> are both completely broken. The first turns Fedora into yet another "Debian
> stable type" distribution: this seems to be what you're advocating, but
> there are already several of those and Fedora would lose one of the main
> things it is about (being always up to date) by endorsing such a policy.
> The second basically turns all releases into Rawhide, which is
> unfortunately unsuitable for daily use. A middle ground is needed, and
> that's where the maintainer has to make a call. And this is why the policy
> is as it is now.

For what it's worth, I agree with Adam, to the extent that I read "work 
optimally" as "work without excessive friction in the community". 
Deviate from either one, and it becomes too much a judgment call, and 
people's judgment is going to vary, and you have a mess.

That said... I also agree that "a middle ground is needed"*. 
Unfortunately, that means living with threads like this one is likely 
inevitable.

(* Yes, Adam, even after reading your reply. I don't want /any/ kind of 
free-for-all. I want some general exercise of discretion. OTOH, I do 
think we need to be clear that we're not in the "bugfix-only" camp.)

-- 
Matthew
ENOWIT: .sig file for this machine not set up yet