On May 18, 2010, at 12:27 PM, Denid Washington wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> You might remember me - I'm the one who wrote a sketchy implementation of the then-discussed "Berlin Packaging API" about two years ago [1]. I have shifted my focus to other things since then, but since recently have more time again and my interest on the topic has been sparked again.
> 

Certainly I remember you.

> Now I am trying to gather what has happened since then. If I haven't missed anything, there was not that much to be missed. The packaging list archives seem to be effectively dead. The only thing I found was thoughts about uplifting to RPMv4 sprinkled around some LSB Wiki pages, for instance the LSB 4.1 Project Plan [2].
> 

Yep. Nothing whatsoever to be missed. The last dialogue I was involved in was (~12/2008):

	Q: What is the _ONE_ most important item for the LSB 4+ packaging standard?
	A: Establishing a "standard" version comparison so that "newer" and "upgrade" are well defined.

Nothing heard (by me) since.

> Now, because I remembered you, Jeff Johnson, to be very constructive, honest and generally helpful in criticizing my proposal (and always entertaining) and were very much involved in the whole discussion, I would like to ask you: what is the state of discussion regarding LSB packaging? Do you know about any progress on this front since, say, the end of 2008? Any hints would be very valuable for me, as I am seriously thinking about a second (maybe more coordinated, complete and consensus-reaching) attempt at working on a new LSB packaging proposal..
> 

LSB packaging is as extinct as the Dodo AFAIK.

(aside)
You might want to look at http://mancoosi.org which is closest
(but "research" not "standard", standards are much harder) to
evolving something better for software packaging. E.g. the Mancoosi
WP5 is sponsoring a SAT depsolver competition this summer that should
lead to interesting implementations.

There's also http://nixos.org which is attempting "functional" packaging
that avoids many of the snarly issues presented by "standard" packaging.

I'm still willing to help however I can with LSB+RPM. Its _INSANE_ to continue
futile "Packaging War" battles and and no users benefit (but certainly
distros/vendors benefit from de facto monopolies through customer
lock-in using software packaging).

73 de Jeff