I think dropping Debian packaging should be a very, very last resort solution. And I’d do everything to avoid that.
Why?
- Debian/Ubuntu usually provides newer Ruby versions quicker than CentOS, which allows us to ship actual releases using these Ruby versions earlier and thus possibly finding and fixing bugs quicker.
- Shipping on two completely different targets forces us to architect the app in a more modular and more standards-compliant way.
- We actually have plugins today, that are only shipped on Debian (foreman_datacenter, I am planing to change that, but it’s not done yet).
- Providing Debian packages eases the entry of primarily Debian-using users into the community.
At the same time, I completely agree with y’all, we’re today lacking people who would actively maintain the packaging and the packaging is more complicated than it should be.
I have an outstanding todo-item to talk to a few people, who offered help with the former, and also have a few ideas how to fix the later. So please, don’t ditch it just yet 