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On Mon, Jul 10, 2017 at 3:09 PM, Matt Turner <mattst88@g.o> wrote: |
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> |
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> For what it's worth, Jack Morgan was recently getting his sparc and |
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> ia64 systems back up, but then decided to retire instead when he saw |
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> all of the discussions about dropping the architectures he cares |
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> about. |
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> |
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|
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Honestly, I don't really get this sort of thing. The reason arches |
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get dropped is because they mark things stable that they can't keep up |
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with. If an arch never marked a package as stable nobody would be |
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bothered. If they only marked a few critical packages as stable and |
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then kept up with them, again nobody would be bothered. The conflict |
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comes in when an arch team marks packages as stable, but then doesn't |
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keep up with them. |
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|
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Marking a package as stable is a two-way commitment. When an arch |
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team marks a package as stable they make a promise to the maintainer |
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to stabilize updates in a timely manner. In return the maintainer |
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promises to keep older versions around to suit the needs of the arch |
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team for the short time it takes to do these stabilizations. |
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|
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When an arch team stabilizes something that they don't have time to |
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maintain then they're making a promise they can't keep, and the deal |
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breaks down. Eventually the maintainers complain, and the council |
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ends up revoking the right of the arch team to hold the maintainers to |
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their side of the deal which has already been broken. |
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|
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There are no bad guys here. There is just a certain amount of work it |
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takes to make a stable arch viable, and it either happens or it |
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doesn't. Most people who use Gentoo are tinkerers by nature. All |
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things being equal we'd love to see every arch supported. However, |
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this requires discipline on the part of the arch team, because |
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otherwise an arch that few people use starts impacting work for other |
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arches that many more use as maintainers get buried in old bugs. |
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|
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-- |
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Rich |