Reconsidering the Gnome standing FFe

[Scott Kitterman]

As I understand it, the original purpose of the Gnome standing FFe was to 
allow Ubuntu to update from Beta Gnome releases to RC and then final just 
before Ubuntu's release.  At the time (IIRC), we didn't have feature 
exceptions, we had upstream version exceptions, so going from RC to final  
needed an exception.

Since then, a number of things have changed.  First, we process exceptions 
based on feature/bugfix instead of worrying about version numbers, so no 
exception is needed for these bug fix releases.  (We used to ask for a standing 
exception for KDE, but it's no longer needed because the KDE uploads we're 
doing from upstream post FF are bugfix only).  Based just on this, I'm not sure 
the standing FFe is needed (but I'm not very familiar with the current Gnome 
release cycle, so it may be).

Additionally, now that Ubuntu is shipping Unity as it's default desktop, the 
situation with Gnome upstream integration is a bit different than it has been 
historically.  A Gnome upstream isn't the complete Ubuntu desktop with Ubuntu 
patches added onto it, it's Gnome technology with a different shell on top.  As 
a result, the integration challenge is, IMO, significantly different.  Based on 
this, I think it's probably prudent to have some additional review of Gnome 
feature changes that arrive post-FF.  Gnome upstream is not in a position to 
understand how such changes might affect Unity, only Ubuntu can check that.

Scott K