[PureOS] Let's stablize PureoS Green

[Jeremiah C. Foster]

On Thu, 2019-03-21 at 18:34 +0100, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> > In addition, things like Geary are already flatpak'd. I'm running
> a 
> > 3.32 version of Geary here on PureOS Green.
> 
> Question with flatpak is not if possible to execute installed
> programs. 
> but how we handle QA aspects we then no longer get from Debian - 
> licensing and security fixes and more, for all parts also all linked
> in 
> libraries and included media files etc., and when we have matured
> our 
> handling to a level we dare declare stable towards our users.

QA - our upstream has a process for QA. We can contribute there by
doing more QA on our contributions to upstream but also in using the
upstream software.

Licensing - GNOME is a GNU project and considered Free Software, so for
the core apps I see no issue. For other applications, we already have a
plan for checking licensing in our curation policies. This is a focus
of the work on PureOS store in the near term.

Security fixes - this needs further discussion. For apps coming from
GNOME we ought to more closely coordinate with GNOME and their security
policeis (at least until those packages are in Debian but a consistent
coordination will likely help in a lot of ways. I intend to talk to Sri
this weekend at LibrePlanet so we can develop a set of relevant
contacts and perhaps setup regular meetings.

> 
> What is not yet stable in Debian testing is the system as a whole.  
> Packages should be in usable form already when uploaded to unstable!
> 
>   If we choose to use Debian stable for some parts and flatpak 
> and/or backports and/or home-maintained packages for some parts,
> then 
> depending on how well we _MAINTAIN_ that whole construct we may end
> up 
> fooling ourselves into having an expensive to maintain burden which
> is 
> (different but) no better than Debian testing.

I think we'll be more able to make an evaluation with data. Right now
it's hard to say how the base distro + flatpak setup works, even though
some companies are betting their entire distro on this setup. Still,
lots of question marks remain as you stated Jonas. Integration is also
a question; how will the data for various apps get passed around? Do
all apps follow the LFS or do we follow the XDG standards?

Until we have more data we don't know what is feasible or not. But we
know today that we have disruptive changes that have a direct impact on
the sustainability of our project. If we can address those disruptions
and make life easier for users, then we're doing our part to ensure
high-quality, convenient Free Software is in the hands of users.

Best,

Jeremiah
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