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And his packages help users even more if he can get his changes into Debian or (even better) upstream. Forking is sometimes unavoidable but it's never ideal.

And his packages help users even more if he can get his changes into Debian or (even better) upstream. Forking is sometimes unavoidable but it's never ideal. I think the maintainer is just trying to maintain his fiefdom otherwise you'd see him petitioning Debian and upstream with pulls. These software projects are just as much about social relationships and sharing as they are about code. That's why I see the maintainer's actions as petty, even if you're insulted by the DDs it's never worth it to stoop to a petty level.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
Nursie 13y ago
"And his packages help users even more if he can get his changes into Debian or (even better) upstream." Some of his packages (AFAICT) are built from upstream sources, but configured to include capabilities that the debian folk won't or can't build into theirs, like mplayer. Others are packages excluded from debian entirely for these reasons, like libdvdcss. The maintainer is providing the user who doesn't care about, or who is not in a jurisdiction where they have to care about it, a whole bunch of codecs and capabilities that the base distro doesn't and will not include.