RPM is not the only one

Posted Aug 23, 2006 9:05 UTC (Wed) by MathFox (guest, #6104)
In reply to: RPM is not the only one by rsidd
Parent article: Who maintains RPM?

I agree with what you say; a distributor has to ensure that essential packages are sufficiently maintained. This may mean that she has to bite the bullet and write her own security patches.
There are some problems with distributor maintained packages. There's the "duplication of effort" issue where each distributor writes her own patches. The "selection of the fittest patch" has halted. The base versions are different, patches can not be easily ported, patches are not communicated and the "Beneficial Dictator" has left his post. The program as such will wither without central maintainer, but it is certainly thinkable that one of the distributor's forks will become the leading variant.

Should we cry about this situation? No, it's evolution in action and as long as the sources are available there is room for someone to pick up. We should get worried when community distributions like Debian and Gentoo start withering.