GSoC 2009 proposal: Fix update-manager/create new update-manager-like application

[Stephan Peijnik]

On Wed, 2009-04-01 at 16:46 +0200, Josselin Mouette wrote:
> Le mardi 31 mars 2009 à 19:34 +0200, Stephan Peijnik a écrit :
> > Either do what has been done before and weed out all non-Debian-specific
> > code from update-manager and upload that, which is quite tedious work
> > and I really understand that nobody has bothered to do that yet.
> 
> Note that Michael Vogt is willing to separate the bits that are
> Ubuntu-specific, so that this is not a problem anymore.

I am aware of that and already talked to him on #gnome-debian.

> > Or, on the other hand, start from scratch and create a new
> > update-manager-like application.
> 
> This is interesting, but I’m worried that this ends up being too much
> work. It probably all depends on you. If you feel confident that you can
> write an application with sufficient functionality coverage in the time
> of GSoC, I’m fine with that.
> 
> In all cases, you should consider the alternatives:
>       * Giving synaptic a more modern look, if possible adding PolicyKit
>         support in it, and adding a simpler alternate interface that
>         would do the job update-manager currently does.
>       * Helping to split the Debian and Ubuntu specific bits in
>         update-manager.
>       * Working on PackageKit so that it becomes usable enough for
>         Debian – although that means forking some pieces of it,
>         especially for proper debconf support.

I actually sent this email before talking to mvo, and I believe that
making update-manager distro-independent with the option of having
distro-specific addons is the better way of fixing all those problems.

> > Secondly, I think I should point out that I would like to work on this
> > project as a GSoC student. So be aware that I wrote this email because I
> > am personally interested in actually working on the (possible) project.
> 
> I don’t want to be involved with the GSoC fuss, but I’m of course ready
> to give advice and help about improving the current situation,
> regardless on what you choose to work on.

Advice and help is always appreciated.

-- Stephan