The Problems Debian Is Facing In 2020

[Teggs]

The first point on the diversity slide is a legitimate ongoing issue. Linux uptake for desktop isn't high anywhere, but uptake in Africa and Asia is almost nonexistant. If Debian wants to do something about it, I suggest they tackle the language issues. That would be helpful, since no one can use something they can't read, and maybe the effort would be within Debian's means (with outside interest in support). Apart from that it's the same issues as elsewhere - ignorance and choice. Most people don't know what Linux is and when they do they choose to use something else. I don't know what new approaches the Debian project can take to change that.

Their biggest problem is Jonathan Carter. Throw this idiot away.

Oh. You think he should go back to saving Mars instead of Earth?

[trek]

it's not nice to read more technical stuff here in the comments than in the DPL slides, even if DPL's work is not to focus on technical stuff, but instead to coordinate and assist the developers in their work

but developers write software, nothing else, so to really help them a DPL should focus on improving coordination around the developers

I think it's great if a community tries to be more inclusive, but how a technical community can be more inclusive? for example banning the EWONTFIX behavior which is a one-way decision dictated by the maintainer, which just blindly ignores use-cases different by his own

also it's great if a community tries to be more diverse, for example allowing alternative software to run on the same distribution like different network managers, graphical frameworks and init systems

to reach more people outside the community, or at least to don't lose more users/developers, the community should value more the work donated to the project: why to break something that works? why to deprecate all the libgtk-oldversion applications only because there is a new libgtk version available?

may be these are not the top relevant topics, but I really would like to see a community more inclusive for developers at first and a DPL who talks about how to make developers life easier

[gfxbeerdrone]

As a black man living in the US, I wouldn't endorse BLM to my worst enemy, and if you believe in BLM I have a bridge to sell you.
In my 62 years of walking on this earth, I've never seen such gullible, stupid people in my life. All damn lives matter

BLM is an embarrassment to the human race and to the people of color.

[creoflux]

Linux uptake for desktop isn't high anywhere, but uptake in Africa and Asia is almost nonexistant. If Debian wants to do something about it, I suggest they tackle the language issues. That would be helpful, since no one can use something they can't read, and maybe the effort would be within Debian's means (with outside interest in support).

Competing for the desktop does not seem to be a good play when mobile is seemingly so dominant in many African countries. Android is #1 in many of parts of Africa. Linux supporting growth of mobile services on the back end seems like a better application. When I think about Africa I think about the amazing growth in the adoption of mobile financial services.

Winning the desktop would seemingly be like being the best volleyball player at a soccer game.

[tuxd3v]

also it's great if a community tries to be more diverse, for example allowing alternative software to run on the same distribution like different network managers, graphical frameworks and init systems

Well... that should be the Agenda,in first place,
But no.. someone seems more interested in a career in Politics..

IMHO, you should "hold your horses", because that doesn't seem to fit in the current agenda..unfortunately.

[tuxd3v]

Android is #1 in many of parts of Africa.
Winning the desktop would seemingly be like being the best volleyball player at a soccer game.

Yes but the problem is that Android is Google/Linux, its not free/open..
Try to replace the google layer, and you will see were you lands, no drivers, no functionality, nothing..

err, its called football..

[ed31337]

How come this is so important to people?

Whether you have Gimp version 2.10.8 rather than 2.10.9 or vim with patch 1382 but not patch 1401 does that really affect so many peoples lives here?

When I'm running old versions of software, it greatly diminishes my engagement with the community. Why waste my time (and other people's time too) reporting a bug if my report is just going to get marked "DUPLICATE" or "ALREADYFIXED?" Why waste time fixing or improving the software myself on an old version that will make upstream integration more difficult?

It is fairly obvious that the majority of people here also use Linux as a workstation or desktop rather than on a server and are generally interested in graphical applications so it can't be to do with security (also updating a server isn't quite the "hammer in apt-get upgrade and sod everything else" approach that it is on the desktop).

No, it does have a lot to do with security as well. Why bother using Linux if I'm just going to get powned like all the Windows users get all the time? In fact, why bother using an insecure computer at all?

You probably all own phones or games consoles running operating systems with ancient versions of busybox and firmware blobs and yet you seem content with them.

I'm absolutely NOT content with my phone being ancient and likely to get powned at any moment. That's why I use real Linux on my desktop and try to minimize the work done on my phone. I know the phone is trash and will certainly get powned and then replaced with a new one at any moment. If I could get a cheap phone that would let me run the latest and greatest real Linux distro instead of that heap of garbage Android, I'd be a lot happier. Unfortunately, that doesn't really exist as an option right now.

As for game consoles, they're expendable. Sure, it would suck if my console got powned, but there is not much I can do about it and it's not really the end of the world anyway.

[moilami]

I've been using Debian sid (unstable) in my desktops for years. Yes, sometimes some things get broken, but that's not usual. For me it's a small price for having a up-to-date distro. And having some skills with apt usually solves the issue.

Debian with KDE it's not ugly at all. GNOME is ugly.

But the main reason for me is having a universal OS for all.

- Desktop -> Debian sid+Liquorix Kernel+Deb multimedia packages.
- Server : Debian stables
- Rapberry Pi: Raspbian
- Old servers with IA64 architecture, Debian old old stable.

Added to this:

- You can repackage debs easily download the sources. (can change compilations flags and repackage)
- It's quite easy to make custom backports (Download sources from sid and repackage for buster)

You don't ever install testing or more unstable for a people who can't fix problems in it himself and who must actually do something with the computer regularly, without you assisting him first. You just don't do that.

[moilami]

Debian should maybe had focused on getting people to join develop Debian, instead of having all sort of "inclusive" parties trying to get LGBT groupies.

[piorunz]

None of these problems mentioned in slides are relevant to me. My Debian Stable + backports server works perfectly. My Debian Stable + backports desktop works perfectly. Same with laptop. All share kernel 5.7, plenty of new packages, I can't complain. Everything is rock solid and I have world-class, quality and timely security updates for every package.
People will moan, that Debian is old and rusty - they basically don't know how Debian works and even stable version can be kept up to date with a little bit of effort, thanks to backports repo. Time to educate, moaners? For everyone else, there is testing and sid, even more updates for a price of stability.
I am happy where I am, buster + buster-backports repos enabled and prioritized, Debian for me is perfect, I am getting my job done. Thank you Debian!