Ubuntu – Why does ubuntu-bug imply that I shouldn’t report bugs for Compiz and Unity

11.04apportbug-reportingcompizunity

I run ubuntu-bug compiz. Select no it's not unity. (Although I get the same result if I report for unity.)

Then I'm presented with this question:

Development is completed for the 'natty' version of Ubuntu, so you should use technical support channels unless you know for certain it should be reported here?

Options:

  • I don't know
  • Yes, I already know the fix for this problem.
  • Yes, The problem began right after doing a system software update.
  • Yes, I have gone through technical support, and they have referred me here.
  • No, please point me to a good place to get support.

"I don't know" and "No…" both give a dialog with links to askubuntu and ubuntu.com/support and end the bug report without sending.

If I found a bug that I want to report, the only applicable yes is "Yes, The problem began after doing a system software update."

This implies that the developers are interested in regressions, but not new bugs.

My understanding was that askubuntu is for help and not for bug reports. Is this dialog merely to help askubuntu to relieve the developers of technical support tasks? (An admirable goal, but I'd assume users who are asked to post to AU and then report the same issue to launchpad will lose enthusiasm — perhaps it's worth it if "junk bugs" are drastically reduced.) When is something not technical support?

For context, the bug I want to report is that when using Scale and switching my selection with the keyboard, Chromium does not display the same selection shadow as other windows (gnome-terminal, nautilus). I'm not looking for help to find a workaround (I can turn on window highlighting in Scale Add-on).

However, I cannot honestly answer Yes to any of the questions.

Best Answer

I mailed Brian Murray (the Ubuntu bugmaster) about this:

Thanks for bringing this up. Its news to me and I'm not really happy with the user experience here. Digging into it this is actually the Xorg package hook for apport so using ubuntu-bug with an Xorg package will provide essentially the same experience. Maybe we should sit down with Bryce next week and discuss it?

Maybe a good start here would be to file a bug on the xorg package about the apport hook. I'll follow up at UDS and update this answer.

(Nice catch by the way!)

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