[webkit-gtk] About the policy of (non) updating minimum build-dependencies

[Michael Catanzaro]

On Wed, 2016-07-06 at 19:22 +0200, Carlos Alberto Lopez Perez wrote:
> So, perhaps we can change that policy to something more practical
> like:
> 
> "WebKitGTK+ has to build both on the last version of Debian stable
> and
> the last version of Ubuntu LTS".

It's a good proposal. The disadvantage is that it ties our dependency
policy towards distros that do not take our updates. If Ubuntu or
Debian were to start taking our security updates, then of course we
should cater our policy to them, but that's not the world we live in.

An alternative proposal, which would let us upgrade dependencies
sooner, is to simply maintain compatibility with major distros that
take our security updates, until the distros hit EOL or n years
(probably 3 or 5) after the release of the distro. We could add distros
to the list if they ask, promise to release our updates in a timely
manner, and meet some popularity criterion (e.g. DistroWatch top 25 or
thereabouts).

On the other hand, cutting off support for Debian/Ubuntu means ending
any chance of them accepting our updates in the future. I don't want to
support them indefinitely nor endorse use of distros that don't update
WebKit, but I do want to give them some more time in hopes they will
change.

Michael