Comment 24 for bug 561129

On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 8:40 AM, Luis Henriques
<email address hidden> wrote:
> If verification is not done by one week from today, this fix will be
> dropped from the source code, and this bug will be closed.

This is yet another example of Ubuntu's absolutely horrid bug handling
practices.

Here we have a bug that has been verified to exist by multiple people,
including the developer himself. The bug can cause a filesystem to
fill up completely, which causes all sorts of software to fail,
including causing programs to fail to exit, fail to save preferences,
fail to save user data (DATA LOSS), and even interfere with logging
out and shutting down the system, which is necessary to restore the
free space.

The developer has not only confirmed the bug, but has patched it and
released a patch upstream. Now the patch is ready to be tested for
release in the LONG TERM SUPPORT release, so that this LTS release
might actually BE a dependable release.

And what happens next? Non-specific people interested in the fixing
of the bug are virtually threatened with extortion!

I have very little free time right now to devote to reporting and
following up on and testing bugs. It may be one or two or even more
weeks between times that I am able to go through my bug-related
emails. I could easily not even notice this message until the time
had expired!

This bug is of CRITICAL importance. But what happens if no one is
able to test it in this arbitrary time limit? The fix will be
dropped, and THE BUG WILL BE CLOSED! CLOSED! This is a CONFIRMED bug
with SERIOUS consequences, and it will be CLOSED as if it were fixed!

There is absolutely NO EXCUSE for this unconscionable behavior.

1. A one-week time limit is not enough. There are plenty of reasons
why a fix like this might not be tested that quickly.
2. If the time limit does expire, it should be trivial to reopen the
testing process.
3. Whether or not anyone EVER tests the fix and reports on it, a bug
should NEVER, EVER be closed until it is FIXED! This goes DOUBLE for
bugs like this of CRITICAL IMPORTANCE!

What is Ubuntu thinking? "Oh well, no one has tested the fix yet, and
I'm too impatient to wait, so it must not matter anymore. Let's just
pretend it never happened, and we can all go on working in ignorant
bliss."

I don't know what the motivation behind this policy is, but that's the
way it comes off to people who spend their VALUABLE TIME helping to
investigate and fix bugs like this. And regardless of the motivation,
it is completely unreasonable.

I have said it so many times, and I will say it again: Ubuntu should
learn from Debian. Bugs in Debian are never, ever closed unless
they're truly fixed or the software is removed from the archive. A
bug might remain open for years, but until it's fixed, it is
documented and remains "open" for others to reference. Debian is
honest; Debian has integrity; Debian values truth over statistics and
convenience. Debian does not disparage the contributions of its
users--unlike Ubuntu, which makes unreasonable threats such as this,
while saying "Thank you for helping to make Ubuntu better" out of the
other side of its mouth.

Again, I don't know about Mr. Henriques's stance on this issue, but
what matters in the end is the result. The result is that 1) users
are discouraged from participating and helping; 2) the quality of
Ubuntu continues to decline; 3) real, serious bugs go unfixed, causing
real people to suffer real consequences.

What's ironic is that policies such as this are matters of
decision-making and leadership, and Ubuntu is far more structured than
Debian--yet Debian is the one leading the way with sensible,
transparent policies.