Request for an open dialog between projects

[info at bandshed.net]

Hi,

I recently noticed the link in the Debian Multimedia Wiki to AV Linux
which I maintain. It is no secret that the excellent work you guys do here
is a huge factor in the growing acceptance of the project. I have also
noted a couple of names of maintainers here are also members of the AV
Linux forum. To give an idea of the relative scope, AV Linux ISO's see
about 10,000 accesses per month, of course this does not indicate actual
successful downloads or end users it simply indicates there is measurable
interest in the project. About 80% of the packages in AV Linux are of
pkg-multimedia origin. The remaining packaging is done by me and includes
some commercial Linux Audio software demos that would not meet Debian's
criteria. I can guess there may be some question as to why I don't just
join pkg-multimedia for the other packaging I do, and the simple answer is
my packaging is narrowly focused and would not meet all Debian standards
and more importantly maintaining a distro by myself has become all I can
currently handle and then some!

The point of all this background is to pose a question about maintaining
pkg-multimedia packages in AV Linux. My custom packages in AV Linux all
have an 'avlinux' suffix appended to them to differentiate them from your
packages, these packages of course I maintain myself. When users have an
issue with one of your packages I find it a little 'politically' awkward
to handle. I would very much like an open dialog with pkg-multimedia so we
can have a good working relationship and I would like to be able to openly
send users and bug reports that pertain to you without masking the true
origin of where these reports are coming from. Although I am an arms
length project that may politically differ from Debian ideals I think we
have far more in common than these minor differences.

I know there is discussion of reviving demudi and I also know AV Linux
would not be a candidate to evolve or adapt into demudi however currently
AV Linux is the only actively maintained Debian non-Ubuntu multimedia
distro out there. I make it a priority with every release to promote and
give pkg-multimedia the attribution you most certainly deserve. I am also
willing to allocate donated funds upstream, for instance to assist with
the proposed Squeeze backports or other purposes, I certainly do not
expect this to be a one-sided relationship.

To summarize I don't expect you to endorse or assist AV Linux only to be
open to maintaining and fixing the pkg-multimedia content within it.
Thanks for taking to time to read and consider this, whatever you may
decide I am grateful for all your efforts and truly and sincerely hope to
increase our collaborative efforts.

Best Regards, Glen MacArthur - AV Linux maintainer.