[Gambas-user] Packager appears broken in Gambas 2.0.0 under Ubuntu Hardy

Bob Warren warren at ...1582...
Sun May 11 21:29:32 CEST 2008


Rob wrote:

 >Again, you really need to be talking to the Ubuntu people about this,

>not us.  It's like complaining on the Apache list that Fedora is 
>shipping an old version with an exploit.

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Why "not us"?
In my ignorance, I thought you might want to know about it, and would be concerned. As it turns out, you DO know about it, and it has been fixed in a later version. As a result, I have acquired that later version and this particular problem has been solved.
Of course, to expect that new software should never get released with fatal bugs in it is too much to expect in realistic terms. It's no crime, though perhaps your beta testing procedures need looking at. However, the fact that the situation should not be easily fixable IS a crime, regardless of who is responsible. As I said, Ubuntu is being allowed to distribute your broken software will-nilly. That's not good for Gambas or Ubuntu, is it?

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Rob wrote:

>I understand that it's a culture shock coming to Linux from the "one 
>company is responsible for 90% of the software we run" world of 
>Windows, but this is how it works.  We have exactly as much control 
>over what Ubuntu ships as you do, no more and no less (actually, 
>probably less since most of us aren't even running Ubuntu.)  

>Hardy is still in its desktop support phase, so if you report the bug 
>in the IDE packager and say it's been fixed upstream, maybe they'll 
>update their repositories.  If no Ubuntu users report the bug, 
>though, it'll never get fixed.

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I'd have felt happier if you said "but this is how it DOESN'T work". Linux is the other extreme: everybody is busy digging his own hole deeper, the left hand doesn't doesn't know (or care much) what the right hand is doing, and so on. Don't get me wrong. We all come from Windows (including you probably). But if I approved of Microsoft domination and total control, I wouldn't be here. And unfortunately, even Ubuntu tends to be a law unto itself, not radically different from Microsoft in some respects. So I appreciate the difficulties.

As for real "culture shock", I don't need any lessons. I emigrated from England to Brazil at the age of 29 (almost 35 years ago) at the height of a very nasty revolution. Brazil needs Linux and RAD programming systems like Gambas, so that is also why I am here. What I learned from real culture shock is that although you need to adapt to some degree to be practical, you don't need to imitate the natives like a monkey. You have to survive, but you don't have to abandon your critical faculties and you don't always have to agree. Such is my attitude towards Linux. The fact that it has certain characteristics currently is a reality. Whether or not those characteristics are desirable, and whether or not we should seek to change them if necessary, are entirely different questions. So for example, it seems that little or no communication/friendship exists between Gambas and Ubuntu. Is that desirable? Probably not. Is anybody really trying to do anything about it? I don't know. It is possible that attempts have been made and have been frustrated. It is also possible that Gambas gave up too soon. Is anybody sending e-mails or getting on the telephone to Ubuntu about the Gambas 2.0 problem? Or do the Gambas technicians "have better things to do with their time"? In sum, if somebody said to me "We'd appreciate your help by reporting the problem to Ubuntu", I might be motivated to do it. But when I get the message "What the hell are you telling us for?" then frankly I don't feel too inspired to help. Who would?

Bob









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