[scribus-dev] deb + ubuntu: migrating scribus-ng users to the scribus package

[ale rimoldi]

hi devs
hi malex

for a long time, on debian (and some other systems, too) people have
been using scribus-ng as the de facto stable version.

now we need to plan a transition to get the "scribus" package to carry
the new stable version and get the people to use it!

currently, the situation has become rather complicated and there
is imo a risk to see it become even more complicated,
if we don't manage carefully the transition after the release of 1.4.


but, let's first try to get the facts straight at least for debian (i
expect the state for ubuntu to be similar to it):
- stable carries 1.3.3.13 (from 2008!) as scribus and 1.3.5 (from
  december 2009) as scribus-ng
- testing has 1.4rc3 as scribus (april 2011) and 1.4rc2 as scribus-ng
- scribus' own repository contains 1.4.0 (january 2012) for
  the "scribus" package
- scribus' own repository contains 1.4rc6 (january 2012) for
  the "scribus-ng" package

on top of it:
- for ubuntu there is a PPA with the current 1.5svn managed by the
  ubuntu project.
- ubuntu users would prefer to have scribus' own packages being
  packaged as PPAs, too.
- malex wishes to wait for the "armel" bug being fixed before pushing
  1.4 as a stable into the official debian repositories.


now the big question: what do we want the people to use?

in my eyes:
- people should use 1.4.x for their daily work.
- 1.5.0 is not ready yet to be used by people who are not involved in
  the development of scribus.


despite of having been using debian and ubuntu for years now, i don't
have deep knowledges of the packaging rules (so i'm not sure if my
proposal is possible). but i'd like to suggest the following migration
path:
- the "scribus" package should carry 1.4.x on debian testing
  and on scribus' own repository. (i don't think anybody will come to a
  different proposal for this...)
- scribus-ng should become a dummy package inviting the
  people to use the "scribus" package instead of "scribus-ng" (both in
  testing and in the scribus own repository). this could be achieved by
  putting in there a scribus 1.4 with a startup warning telling
  the users to switch to "scribus" (something like the ghostscript
  warning)
- people using debian stable (or older ubuntus) will have to add the
  scribus own repositories to get 1.4 in the "scribus" package: we
  can't change the versions in the stable repositories.

as soon as scribus 1.5 will be ready to be tested by a broader public
(i think that the minimal requirement for it to happen, is to have
the undo for text) it can be packaged as scribus-ng.


by this proposal, i mainly want to avoid that users who are looking for
a stable modern scribus are migrated to an unstable 1.5 without their
express willing to do so.


one last thought: i wonder if it's really useuful to have a scribus-ng
package in the debian repositories... or if scribus-ng should in the
future only be in the scribus' own repositories.
scribus-ng was necessary, because 1.4 has taken so long to be
released, but i'm really not sure, that it will be still useful if the
releases get closer (as it has been proposed and -- i think --
everybody wishes).
if we can agree that scribus-ng should not be in the official debian
repositories, i think that it should be possible to get apt to
ask the users to replace scribus-ng by scribus making the transition
much easier.
as soon as scribus-ng will be needed again, it will be added
again but only to the scribus' own repositories (this will be much
easier to manage!)


voilà the mail got longer than i would have liked...

what are your thoughts?

ciao
a.l.e