[Pkg-owncloud-maintainers] Bug#816376: Unfit upstream

[Sébastien Villemot]

Dear David,

First, let me thank you for the work that you put into packaging
owncloud for Debian, it is really appreciated.

On Tue, 1 Mar 2016 07:07:10 -0400 David =?iso-8859-1?Q?Pr=E9vot?= <taffit at debian.org> wrote:

> Upstream doesn’t wish to see their software in Debian anymore. Unless
> the situation changes in the next few months, owncloud will not be part
> of Stretch.

Given that owncloud is such a useful and important package, and that
there is currently no credible alternative, this is really sad news, and
I am wondering whether this outcome could be avoided.

If I understand correctly, your decision is essentially based on social
issues (upstream hostile to Debian packaging), coupled to some technical
aspects (complex upgrade paths).

At first glance, this does not seem to prevent the package from staying
in Debian. Maybe this just means that the package needs a new
maintainer, who is willing to handle the tough interaction with upstream
and dealing with the technical issues (note that I am not applying for
the job).

You are certainly in a better position than me to ascertain whether the
package can stay in Debian or not, but I think that it would be useful
if you could give a little more background on the issues that you
encountered. And, if you think it makes sense to orphan the package,
that would help prospective new maintainers in making the decision to
adopt the package or not.

Cheers,

-- 
 .''`.    Sébastien Villemot
: :' :    Debian Developer
`. `'     http://sebastien.villemot.name
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