CI talk (Was: re: Manner in which kde-gtk-config development is conducted)

[Kevin Kofler]

Ben Cooksley wrote:
> I'm unhappy with them due to how they handled the complete disaster
> that was a significant version update to a core system library (libc I
> think) which they did in a stable, released distribution.

I cannot really speak for that part, but for the following part:

> It was at this point that I had finally had enough of Fedora (having
> previously had to deal with their internal politics over the packaging
> of QtWebEngine, which meant we ended up having to use Qt 5.8 rather
> than the Qt 5.9 which we had initially targeted as the 5.9 packaging
> was blocked) and dumped them for SUSE, the images that we continue to
> use today.

the technical issue back then was that QtWebEngine was heavily patched in 
Fedora, in particular, in order to support x86 machines without SSE2. (Yes, 
these exist.) All the patches, including the huge no-sse2 patch, had to be 
ported from release to release by one person that happened to be me. 
(Needless to say, I was strictly opposed to pushing an update removing 
support for some hardware to a stable release, as I hope you can understand. 
Hence, rebasing the no-sse2 patch was a blocker.) As soon as the patch 
rebases were ready, the package update was submitted. These days, 
QtWebEngine is not as heavily patched anymore, and in particular, we no 
longer attempt to support x86 without SSE2, because Fedora has dropped 
support for it distrowide.

In addition, I have since resigned as the primary maintainer of QtWebEngine. 
You will occasionally find me committing some fixes, but I am no longer the 
point of contact nor the one doing most of the work. QtWebEngine in Fedora 
is now maintained by Rex Dieter. And the comaintainer who attempted (and 
failed) to do the QtWebEngine 5.9 upgrade at your request has since left 
Fedora entirely. So the political issue should also be resolved to your 
liking.

I hereby formally apologize for any extra work the delays in getting Qt 5.9 
out (and the possible miscommunications around them – I do not know what the 
former comaintainer may have promised to you without consulting me first) 
may have caused to you. It will never happen the same way again.

        Kevin Kofler