Martin Zobel-Helas writes ("Re: Debian Installer Jessie RC 3 release"):
> Can you please explain why you are doing thins now instead of earlier
> releases? This BR has been open since October! Also i expect mininal
> changes in an RC3, not such massive functional changes.This is not the first time in this release that I have heard of someone making a likely-to-be-controversial change immediately before a freeze deadline of some kind. In general doing such changes at the last moment can feel very aggressive to the people who had hoped and expected jessie to ship with a feature important to them. I think maintainers should do their utmost to avoid this situation arising. That means that if there are difficult decisions to be made, the decisionmaker should clearly (and, as applicable, widely) communicate their intent, well before the decision becomes final. Unless there is are very good reasons otherwise, such changes should also be implemented well before freeze deadlines, just as we want technically wide-ranging changes to be made early. That will allow people affected to make representations, try to find workarounds, etc. Even if no better solution or workaround is found and the decision is ultimately unchanged, it makes those adversely affected feel much less bad: they will know that their preferences have been taken into account and that they have been listened to and given an opportunity to fix problems - even if ultimately those efforts don't provide an outcome which everyone is happy with. As ever, I think the primary responsibility of the maintainers of any package or area in Debian is the cultivation and management of their subproject's human relationships, including those both inside and outside the subproject or Debian as a whole. Writing code, gardening bugs, doing uploads, and even major design work, can be delegated. Making controversial decisions - fairly and constructively - cannot be delegated. Thanks, Ian. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/21814.20103.543731.4...@chiark.greenend.org.uk
