Bug#766185: freeciv-client-gtk: Removal of GTK+3 client

[Markus Koschany]

On 24.10.2014 21:25, Jacob Nevins wrote:
[...]
>> My main concern is that our common practice of providing multiple
>> clients is at stake here. Actually I don't see any reason to continue
>> providing multiple clients because you can argue the same way for all
>> other clients. They are not feature complete and probably buggy.
> 
> I don't think this issue needs to be inflated to whether multiple
> clients are packaged at all; I'd be happy for freeciv-gtk3 to be in its
> own package on its own terms, and am only suggesting pulling it entirely
> to try to meet Jessie timescales. If we postpone resolution to
> post-Jessie then the correct resolution is to split out a
> freeciv-client-gtk3 package, not to remove freeciv-gtk3. (And it really
> is too late to do anything for Jessie now, for practical purposes, I
> think?)

Yes, I'm afraid it's too late. I also think we overreact a little. Given
the fact that the GTK+ 3 client has been included for a year now, I
would have expected more bug reports. In fact nobody reported anything
about the GTK+ 3 client and that's kind of surprising since Freeciv is
one of the most popular games and quite a lot of users install it.
(According to Popcon only supertux, supertuxkart, extremetuxracer and
bsdgames are more "popular").


> Why this request was so late: I was vaguely aware that freeciv-gtk3 had
> been packaged as of 2.4.0, packaged, but like Marko, I assumed that it
> was in its own package, and I wasn't aware until recently that it was
> included in the same package as the default/recommended client, with no
> clear distinction between the two once installed.
> (My original request attached, for the record.)


I'm more relaxed about the whole situation. Even if the GTK+ 3 client
had been packaged separately, there would have been the same chance that
someone installed the GTK+ 3 version and complained about it later.
Moreover on Debian systems users are expected to read the package
description and the README.Debian file in /usr/share/doc/<package>.

>> In my opinion removing the GTK+ 3 client two weeks before the freeze
>> is also a rather disruptive change and I would have expected more bug
>> reports in the past months from people if the situation was really
>> that bad.
> 
> Maybe I'm worrying overly; the Ubuntu 14.04LTS package is the same
> shape, I think, and I don't recall seeing any fallout from that (either
> upstream or in Launchpad). I've only fielded the one person who ran into
> freeciv-gtk3 by accident.
> 
> In the end it's your decision as Debian maintainer, of course.

I believe we should postpone this change for Jessie+1 and version 2.5.
The best solution would be to create a freeciv package that depends on
the most sophisticated and recommended client that is currently the GTK+
2 client.

All other clients could be available in separate binary packages as
before but we should consider to remove some of them. It is inevitable
that people will complain about unfinished and buggy clients if we
provide them readily. In my opinion you should decide as upstream
developers what clients you want to support and what you deem as
acceptable enough to be shipped by Debian, no matter if it is provided
by a single package or by multiple ones. But please inform us a long
time before the next freeze. :)

Regards,

Markus


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 949 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-games-devel/attachments/20141024/eae2eb77/attachment.sig>