Re: [gentoo-dev] last rites: sys-fs/eudev

[Sam James <sam@gentoo.org>]

"Eddie Chapman" <eddie@ehuk.net> writes:

> Rich Freeman wrote:
>> On Tue, Sep 12, 2023 at 9:36 AM Eddie Chapman <eddie@ehuk.net> wrote:
>>
>>> in Gentoo. Have any of these 4 maintainers publicly said (anywhere)
>>> that they are not interested in being maintainers anymore (which is fine
>>> if that is the case)?  We're not talking here about a lone maintainer of
>>> some peripheral package that's disappeared leaving an orphaned package.
>>
>> It isn't like somebody is censoring the lists or waging commit wars on
>> the metadata.xml/mask file.  If somebody was eager to maintain it I'm sure
>> they'd have spoken up.
>>
>>> I'm an outsider to Gentoo development (just a heavy user for over a
>>> decade both personally and professionally) so I might have missed
>>> something. I just find it puzzling.
>>
>> I'm not puzzled by what is going on, or by your email, because it
>> happens basically anytime a high-profile package is treecleaned.  Yes,
>> Gentoo is about choice, but somebody has to actually do work to make
>> the choices viable.  There are always more people interested in using
>> software than maintaining it.  The frustration is completely
>> understandable, but also kinda unavoidable.
>
> It starts to bother me that so many people straight away assume that when
> someone questions things it's because they are a frustrated user who just
> wants everyone else to do the work for them. And the same old argument
> keeps being repeated over and over again *as if they think that no one
> gets it* apart from us devs. I've been a free & oss software user for over
> 20 years and I find it very patronising whenever it happens. The reality
> is that are very few people in this community that don't understand the
> fundamentals of free software, that no one is being paid, no one is
> obligated, we are all volunteers, well then why don't you do it, etc, etc.
>  I've never asked or expected anyone to actually step up and do the work
> and if you read my messages you will see that I've never even implied it.
>

No, but other people in the thread have, and the expectation is others
will read it too. This is one of those topics where in particular we
get a lot of it.

Suggestions of "something smelly" then do imply some of the things
you're saying. We're used to conspiratorial suggestions with this topic too.

>> Repo QA standards don't mean that it has to barely work for your
>> specific use case.  The package has to deal with compatibility issues with
>> stuff you don't use as well, which is why maintaining a system package can
>> be hard work.  It is usually less of an issue for more ordinary
>> applications, which tend to have fewer interactions.  If it is "good
>> enough" for you as it is, then just move it to a private overlay and keep
>> using it.  You probably would need to override a virtual or two as well.
>> Or publish your work somewhere others can use
>> it.
>
> I see, so again I just don't get it do I? I'm just a user who is in their
> own little world and all they care about is what works for them, and I
> don't think or understand anything about the bigger picture.

I wouldn't read that much into it. Rich is always verbose (and I mean
no insult there), he's just being explicit about the options.


>
>> --
>> Rich