One of the GNOME Calendar developers (Hari Rana) publicly raised a conflict with the maintainer of the package in the Linux Mint distribution. The conflict arises because Linux Mint ships a package with a modified outdated version of GNOME Calendar. Despite the specific changes, the application is provided under the name GNOME Calendar, which leads users to believe they are using the original project.
In the version of GNOME Calendar from Linux Mint, some bugs remain unfixed, and users regularly reach out to the main developers of GNOME Calendar regarding this, believing they are responsible for the issues encountered. The 'About' page in the application retains the contact details of the main project, and users report issues directly to the GNOME Calendar developers, even though the problems described are either already fixed in the current versions of GNOME Calendar or caused by changes made by the maintainer of the package in Linux Mint.
Nine months ago, one of the key developers of GNOME Calendar created a ticket in the Linux Mint bug tracker, requesting the maintainer of the GNOME Calendar package to remove all links pointing to the main project and to perform a rebranding, replacing the application icon. The request remained unanswered for six months, and after a reminder about its existence, the maintainer of the package in Linux Mint asked for clarification on which problematic changes were referenced. He also emphasized that the supported branches of Linux Mint and LMDE use packages imported from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Debian 13, corresponding to the versions of GNOME 46 and 48 shipped in those distributions.
The GNOME Calendar developer explained that he does not have time to analyze the changes in the Linux Mint package and that removing individual changes will not resolve the issue, as the package based on GNOME 46 and 48 is significantly outdated compared to the current version. In his opinion, the problem can be resolved by either removing the package or rebranding the fork and removing all links pointing to GNOME.
The accompanying package responded that it further checked all the changes specific to Linux Mint and found no issues. It also pointed out that the packages with the outdated version of GNOME Calendar from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Debian 13 are used by millions of users, and asked whether the developer intends to request Debian and Ubuntu to stop providing their packages.
The GNOME Calendar developer replied that this is not so much about fixing changes as it is about Linux Mint supplying problematic versions of GNOME Calendar, forcing users to report bugs to the main project. The issue is not with the packages from Debian Stable or Ubuntu LTS, but with the package from Linux Mint and the complaints coming specifically from Linux Mint users, not from Debian and Ubuntu users. If complaints were being submitted by users of Debian and Ubuntu packages, a similar request would have been directed at those projects.
The accompanying package in Linux Mint stated that the difference between the packages from Debian/Ubuntu and that from Linux Mint is merely in some additional fixes, and supplying GNOME 46 in the distribution cannot update GNOME Calendar to the state from GNOME 50. By removing the Linux Mint specific package, users would end up with an even more problematic version from the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS repository, also based on GNOME 46, but without the bug fixes added by the accompanying package in Linux Mint. Therefore, the only way to block the installation of outdated versions of GNOME Calendar in Linux Mint and LMDE is to remove the package from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Debian 13; otherwise, these versions will still be installed from the repositories of those distributions.
One of the participants in the discussion suggested solving the problem by adding a field for the GNOME Calendar version in the bug report template, which would allow immediately closing requests related to outdated versions. The GNOME Calendar developer stated that the receipt of complaints is not limited to the official bug report submission form, as many users report issues through social media, Matrix chat, and other communication channels. In response, the accompanying package posed the question — what about the removal of the links in the "About" dialog, which was originally mentioned, when the developer simply does not want users to run old versions.
After that, the maintainer closed the ticket, explaining that removing links in the 'About' dialog will only solve the issue in the short term and will not address the systemic problem of outdated versions being supplied in LTS distributions. Additionally, such a change would need to be made in both Debian and Ubuntu, as there are no reasons why the problem would affect only Mint but not appear in Ubuntu and Debian. The license for the GNOME Calendar code allows for unrestricted distribution of the program, and to prohibit the supply of old versions, a transition to a non-free license is necessary.
The developer of GNOME Calendar maintained his opinion and published an article criticizing the supply of an old version in Linux Mint, mentioning that Linux Mint is shifting the responsibility for the errors to the developers of GNOME Calendar and likely violating the GNOME trademark by distributing unsupported builds, while presenting them as supported by the main project and misleading users to avoid handling the support themselves.
Source: opennet.ru
