How to handle KDE not respecting YOUR distros requirements?

[Martin Graesslin]

On Saturday, March 26, 2016 1:59:13 PM CEST Heinz Wiesinger wrote:
> On Friday 25 March 2016 17:20:56 Martin Graesslin wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I stumbled over a blog post by a KDE distro packager and want to do a
> > verbatim quote of one section:
> > "[] does not have a steenking systemd you crazy KDE developer"
> > 
> > I can see there some frustration about Plasma requiring systemd and the
> > distro not wanting that. First of all: that's not the case, we don't have
> > any dependency on systemd. We have a few runtime dependencies to logind's
> > dbus interface (like in this case) and are extremely open to other
> > solutions. For example the repository in question also supports
> > consolekit2.
> 
> Just to make this clear, we (Slackware) are aware. But naming of the DBUS
> interfaces can cause some confusion so people may not make the logind <->
> ConsoleKit2 connection immediately. Not an excuse, just an explanation
> attempt.
> 
> > Now what's wrong with the approach in the blog post:
> > 1. It creates an us vs. them! Let's not do that, let's work together to
> > solve problems. E.g. by raising concerns on this mailing list
> 
> I fully agree with you here. But, this was pre-discussion. It was just a
> package maintainer voicing surprise on a blog about something he did not
> expect. Next steps would have been research, and if no solution was to be
> found we would then obviously take it to either the bugtracker or the
> mailing list.
> 
> > 2. Insults don't help your case! If you call devs crazy you don't have to
> > be surprised that your distro's use case will be ignored. After all I'm
> > crazy ;-) Also it doesn't support your wish to have more supported than
> > logind. Reactions like that just manifest the feeling that the
> > non-systemd people are a crowd of people which cannot do anything except
> > yelling. Sorry to be that blunt.
> 
> I do understand where you're coming from. And I know Eric is not making it
> easy on you ;) Just please don't read more into this statement than there
> is.
> > 3. If your distro doesn't follow what 99 % of all other distros do, don't
> > expect we write code for it!
> 
> We don't. We do expect you however to respect the issues we're having with
> your software and we do expect you to help us in finding solutions.
> Together. Note, "finding" is not the same as "implementing". But stating
> that "I'm using logind. If you want to use something else, figure it out"
> just creates an us vs. them. Let's not do that. ;)
> 
> > But please don't expect that new code will consider anything than what is
> > used by the vast majority of our users.
> 
> See, this is where as a developer I have to disagree. I expect new code to
> support everything that is already supported elsewhere in the stack, even if
> you personally don't run it. At the very least there should be a call for
> action *before* the new code lands so other people can help out in
> providing support for those minority cases. Otherwise this is just a
> backhanded way of kicking them out.

Honestly: that's not realistic. How does that work in reality:
* hey KWin will need logind to start Wayland session
* meh don't care we don't have Wayland yet
* ok, thank you for the answer

Been there, done that :-)

Cheers
Martin
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