Fedora Extras packaging beta software into production repos, why?

[Josh Boyer]

On Sat, 2006-10-28 at 23:10 +0200, Axel Thimm wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 28, 2006 at 05:22:43PM +0200, Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> > Josh Boyer schrieb:
> > > As for the third party repo aspect of this, that is quite difficult.
> > > There are potentially tons of third party repos, which already conflict
> > > with each other.  We cannot show preference for one or the other.  That
> > > does not mean that a third party repository maintainer cannot open a
> > > bug.  It just means that we cannot expect Extras maintainers to go
> > > looking for problems in each and every third party repo before updating
> > > something.
> > 
> > +1
> 
> I think this is a dangerous attitude. W/o going into ugly details I
> believe the reason that Fedora has such a cluttered 3rd party
> repository support in comparison to all other distros is just because
> of that historic strategic and tactical errors (IMO) that were at the
> beginning of the project alienating most 3rd party repositories.

Let me put it this way.  If <N> third party repositories had no
conflicting packages with either Core, Extras, or _each other_, I
personally might consider trying to take them into account.  But that
will _never_ happen.  And trying to take them all into account when
updating packages is just pain.

However, that doesn't mean that people can't try to take them into
account.  I'm sure some people try and do succeed in checking various
third party repositories before updating things.  I applaud them for
their efforts.  I just don't see how it's justifiable to _require_ it to
be done by all maintainers.

> The last years have shown that this can be undone, but unfortunately
> at a slow pace, and with often setbacks. In order to close the gaps in
> the community you need to follow embracement politics, not (actively)
> ignore and alienate parts of it.

I think we both agree that the embracement (good word) needs to go both
ways.  Not overriding Core/Extras packages is a good start.  It makes
cross-repo verification easier.

> 
> It was just a few days ago that someone ranted about a 3rd party repo
> forking Fedora, and this is just an example which shows that the
> actors are reversed.

Sorry, I don't follow here.  I fail to see how this is the opposite of
that other discussion.

(Remember, the above are all just my opinions.  I'm not speaking for
FESCo.)

josh