4 ms·
> Well, this is Debian - they generally don't maintain the software They definitely maintain software. There is a whole pile of packages that aren't maintaine
by rstuart4133 9y ago
> Well, this is Debian - they generally don't maintain the software
They definitely maintain software. There is a whole pile of packages that aren't maintained upstream any more that are still maintained in Debian, they write things like manual pages for commands that don't have then, they bash the build scripts into something that works on a whole pile of architectures the author never considers, they manage what is probably the worlds biggest issue track system, and then there is the security team producing patches for versions upstream no longer supports.
But probably it's just your wording. While they do maintain software, they are mostly concerned with packaging existing software, not writing new stuff.
- geofft 9y agoThey generally don't maintain the software. Things like manual pages and architecture porting can be pushed upstream, and are fine to maintain as diffs if not; buildsystem changes are usually hard, and maintaining that as a delta makes it hard to incorporate new versions. (One of the packages I maintain in Debian is apparently dead upstream as of the last year or so, but even so I'm not very interested in becoming the new upstream and adopting big changes like a new build system.)