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Idea #4533: >>> Only one high quality community repository for Ubuntu

Written by 6205 the 13 Mar 08 at 20:20. Category: Others. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
Ubuntu community repositories (Universe, Multiverse or Medibuntu) should be like Packman is for openSUSE. I'm dissapointed with quality of current repos full of old, obsolete packages. I wish we had one, high quality maintained repository with newest stuff and not only few backported packages sometimes, if any...

Currently would e.g. latest Gstreamer 0.10.7 multimedia plugins make me happy (changelog/improvements are huge), but they are not available for Ubuntu 7.10, but in Suse world you will get excellent services even for obsolete 2 years old version Suse 10.0 and you can search any packages you want and find them also for older Suse versions. Now that' what i call community repo...

If you now install 6 months old openSUSE 10.3 you will get premium support with newest, constantly updated/recompiled packages for lots of applications for quite some time. GetDeb is promissing project, but still far away from Packman - The real long term support :)

And not to mention Suse NVidia+ATI repo, Compiz repo, Banshee repo, Mozilla repo, Beagle repo, Wine and the list goes on... http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories

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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #4533
Written by 6205 the 13 Mar 08 at 20:20.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #4533 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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forum Ubuntuforums.org thread #723437


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Comments
cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 20:47
So voluteer to maintain packages....

alvevind wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 21:27
Why do you use ">>>" before the title?

zooounds wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 12:42
-1 because ">>>" in the title. Good ideas is seen w/o this silly markers.

nullmind (Idea reviewer) wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 15:26
-1 ">>>" syntax error: can't shift right w/ rotate

6205 wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 15:52
Sorry for inconvenieces with that stupid >>> but i am unable to remove it, i can edit only decription content :( btw pls. i would preferer comments (if any) related to topic, not form.

@cheesehead -> Unfotunately i am not so skilled in compiling/maintaining packages, but would definitely donate money to one merged community repo if necessary...

fluxy wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 17:43
I think decentralization of the repos maintenance would be better, i.e each program publisher maintaining & testing his/her own package. Apt urls could be used by the publishers and the ubuntu repos catering only for libraries.

6205 wrote on the 14 Mar 08 at 18:20
I would merge all three of them in one repo(with current staff/maintaners), with new website similar to Packman (icons by Jimmac :), also with language translations (doable on lauchpad) + add some nice donate button (donators get ubuntu stickers or t-shirts) Available packages should be focused on 2 or max. 3 ubuntu releases, but 3 seems to be too much. My finetuned Gusty is excellent and Hardy will interest me maybe at the end of the year. Only updated packages for 7.10 are missing :(

Canonical marketing team will provide new name for repo, or it simly will be called Universe, or Ubuntu Universe Community Repository 2008 Ultimate Non-Free Edition DeLuxe :)))

sb56637 wrote on the 13 May 08 at 18:20
This is so true. What a dumb policy that users have to wait six months to receive a program update that comes out two days after an Ubuntu release. But "Ubuntu knows best", so I doubt this will change.

sb56637 wrote on the 13 May 08 at 18:22
This is so true. What a dumb policy that users have to wait six months to receive a program update that comes out two days after an Ubuntu release. But "Ubuntu knows best", so I doubt this will change.

mybunche wrote on the 28 Jun 08 at 06:14
Without knowing the technical and political problems, this seems a good idea. Or maybe its a manpower issue. Novell has got money and staff to do that.

Vadim P. wrote on the 9 Aug 08 at 19:52
Getdeb.net started working Playbuntu, which is a really nice solution: http://digg.com/linux_unix/getdeb_net_announces_Playbuntu

Weevil wrote on the 9 Sep 08 at 14:24
This is my idea exactly - after configuring my distro to my liking my don't want to upgrade every six months and start over again... while my Ubuntu Gutsy is getting left behind OpenSuse 10.3 is still getting the packages/updates I want.

rs3york wrote on the 18 Sep 08 at 20:10
This is an interesting idea and I too like the strength of the backport pipeline on openSUSE.

But this argument is flawed. If you take any time to analyze how repos on openSUSE work then you know this whole "One Community Repo" concept doesn't exist. Even if you just read this description, you see it starts out saying "1 repo" then goes on to list 7 more repos you can add to get backports.

Never mind that you also need the VLC repo in addition to Packman to get full multimedia support...the truth of the matter is to achieve what this idea claims to support you need more than one repo even on openSUSE (a lot more than one - I have 17 Build Service repos + VLC + Packman + Nvidia).

Are backports better on openSUSE? Definitely!
Are they all delivered by one convenient community repo? No, not even close.

Götz wrote on the 31 Jan 09 at 00:21
I like also Packman, but I like more *ubunut...

*ubuntu isn't a Rolling release distribution ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_release ) that's why the repos are not updated with new software releases, only security-like bug fixes.


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