Simon McVittie writes ("Re: What can Debian do to provide complex applications
to its users?"):
> Here is a different straw man, which I think might be similarly effective
> and a lot less work:
FTR, even though I am trying to participate constructively and help
refine Didier's proposal, I think your proposal is a good one too.
I have a reservation which is not really related to proper security
support (which the user simply can't have in Red Queen's Race
ecosystems, whether they install things from the upstream or via some
new thing of ours).
Your proposal would involve some quite large source packages which
would, in some cases, substantially overlap with each other. Also
these packages would have to be updated much more frequently than
normal. Often, automatically. Debian's release cycle is a poor fit.
I think our normal review processes, freeze policies, and so on, would
struggle. It might even be that our mirror network would struggle.
Didier's proposal differs from yours not only in whether sources and
binaries are agglomerated, but also (implicitly) in whether we try to
do it via our existing development, review and distribution channels.
Ian.
