Linux Ubuntu App Center STK outdated

[Zeys]

Hey!

Seemingly the STK version of my App Center in Ubuntu only offers 1.3 as "stable" and 1.4 as "edge", even tho 1.5 just came out! 
Maybe it's time to update these versions?

Thank you!

[Alayan]

Repackaged versions distributed by various Linux distributions are something out of our direct control.

I suppose we can go and complain to the maintainers of these packages so they update, but it's not really fun to have to worry about downstream packaging on top of everything else.

I guess in this case you are talking about the Snap package? The fact that 1.3 is marked as "stable" and 1.4 as "edge" is astounding, as if 1.4 was somehow experimental and 1.3 more tested. The more recent release fixes many bugs, and with SuperTuxKart's sometimes criticized approach to keep compatibility between minor versions there is limited room for regressions. Anything but having 1.5 as the "stable" release once updated would be ludicrous.

[Zeys]

Repackaged versions distributed by various Linux distributions are something out of our direct control.

I suppose we can go and complain to the maintainers of these packages so they update, but it's not really fun to have to worry about downstream packaging on top of everything else.

I guess in this case you are talking about the Snap package? The fact that 1.3 is marked as "stable" and 1.4 as "edge" is astounding, as if 1.4 was somehow experimental and 1.3 more tested. The more recent release fixes many bugs, and with SuperTuxKart's sometimes criticized approach to keep compatibility between minor versions there is limited room for regressions. Anything but having 1.5 as the "stable" release once updated would be ludicrous.

Ok well I'm new to Linux and I just learned a lot of things. I thought that you guys contribute the versions to that.
I see. Well maybe we can just write a little mail or something to that person? That may not seem like worth the effort, but at the same time, it still takes some time until STK Evolution releases right? And there are probably some people who don't even know about the website and just get the game from there.

What do you think?

[Sauss-Ente]

@Zeys: Maybe try looking for the Ubuntu message board and suggest, that this specific package might be worth adding to the repositories (the package list). Provide lots of links (to the source code, to the homepage) and explain things about Supertuxkart, so that your research on this topic gets passed on to the Ubuntu developers (without them having to dig in by themselves).

On Salix, my previous Linux distro, it was really just a message on the message board. And the main Salix developer was really friendly, compiled the code almost in no time, tested it quickly, and in less than a week, the suggested package was in the repositories.

[Alayan]

After spending some time searching, I found a place where issues for the SuperTuxKart Snap can be reported.

There is a ticket from June 2024 asking for 1.4 to be made stable, after the 1.4 Snap was made available two years late. This ticket has remained without any answer. Ascii-Wolf reported the 1.5 release in that ticket too, without any effect.

I opened a further ticket about 1.5, but realistically it won't do anything.

Snapcraft didn't make it easy to find, but there is a place where takeover of a Snap can be requested. But while this could allow to take control of the Snap, I've personally no interest in having to manage yet another way of distributing STK. We would need an interested developper committing to further updating it and asking to take it over. There are also the competing Flatpak and AppImage formats, which would make a lot more sense for the STK Team to want to handle than Snap.

[Alayan]

The Snap Store reminds me a lot of the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, except with some open source fluff. Snapd only works with Canonical's severs and they have refused to allow support for custom severs.