Hi again. It is intentional that Automatix is not in the repos. Besides the fact that no problem-free "automatix"-like tool has been written (EasyUbuntu has similar problems), it could be considered risky legally (I don't remember the exact legal term for it). I'm quite positive that this has been discussed, and rejected. (Even if it's not definitely illegal, it's sort of grey area that people would rather avoid). You might want to search for relevant discussions in the ubuntu-sounder mailing list archives .
Probably the "not easy" part about adding new software to Ubuntu comes from the fact that a lot of attention has to be paid to details. It's not trivial for everybody to create a .deb - but I don't think this is something that can be changed. One has to verify that the software works correctly, that there are no security flaws, that it is legal to redistribute it, write documentation etc. About your "package-hunters", I'm not too sure. I might be wrong, but I doubt that there exist many .deb's that are not already in Debian/Ubuntu. And even if they exist, they may not be in Debian/Ubuntu for a particular reason. Finally, applications that have no equivalents in the repos are probably scarce so I'm not sure this justifies the manpower. You might want to bring this up on ubuntu-sounder however . All in all, keep in mind that this is a community effort :-) While I'm sure that nobody is against adding packages in the repositories, it is a fact that the developers are limited. It's not just doing the initial packaging - somebody has to take care of the product's bugs (have you seen how Malone's bug count rises daily?), watch for updates etc. Of course, you're more than welcome to help! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU is an excellent starting point. -- installing some applications on Ubuntu requires adding external repositories https://launchpad.net/bugs/57120 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
