Backlogged

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This issue or request is valid, but cannot be worked on right now due to limited developer time and a large backlog. Options: Apply Self Support First Policy / Become a Contributor / Purchase Support.

This wiki chapter refers to issues, feature requests, usability improvements and documentation tasks that have been acknowledged as valid, but are currently not being worked on due to constraints and limited developer time.

Reasons:

1 Large amount of bug reports and feature requests.

backlog 1archive.org iconarchive.today icon / backlog 2archive.org iconarchive.today icon

2 Maintenance

3 Maintainability

4 Research

In Freedom Software projects, maintenance is continuous and time consuming. New work must compete with existing work. Therefore some valid items will remain in the backlog and:

  • No near-term development: Will not receive developer attention in the near term.
  • No schedule: Will not be scheduled and has no ETA (estimated time of arrival).
  • Long duration possible: Might remain unresolved for a very long time without external contributions or funding.
  • Hidden complexity: May require additional research, testing, or careful design work, even if the initial change appears simple at first glance.

To get an overview of the existing workload, see What we do and especially Maintenance.

What "Backlogged" Means

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A "Backlogged" label indicates the report is tracked as valid or reasonable, but is not currently prioritized for developer work.

It does not necessarily imply "technically impossible". It also does not necessarily imply the request has been declined or is unsupported.

See also Security_Roadmap for long-term vision and Dev/todo for current developer priorities.

Why Backlog Exists

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There are several reasons:

  • Developer Time:
    • Even short individual discussions or investigations do not scale.
    • Consider the following analogy. A popular speaker at a conference is approached by 500 people before their speech. Each individual requests a private discussion of only five minutes. The speaker made a rough calculation; ~500 people multiplied by five minutes equals 2,500 minutes or ~ 41 hours (nearly two days). Clearly it is infeasible for one speaker to accommodate everyone's request for a short discussion.
    • Developer time is often required not only for coding, but also for reproducing issues, reviewing patches, testing, documentation updates, release integration, and regression handling. See Policy Rationale.
  • Maintenance First:
    • A large fraction of project work is ongoing maintenance (security updates, packaging, testing, releases, infrastructure, documentation). This is necessary to keep existing users safe and systems functional. See Maintenance.
  • Scope and Ecosystem:
    • Since Whonix is based on Debian there are thousands of software packages and configurations. Each additional supported feature or change can increase future maintenance and support burden.
  • Usability and Funding Constraints:
  • Complexity and (In)Security:
    • Large and fast-changing upstream code bases, as well as inherent complexity in modern computing, limit how quickly security-relevant issues can be analyzed and resolved; see About Computer (In)Security.

What You Can Do

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Community members can help ensure the continued success of Whonix through four primary means:

  1. providing Community Feedback;
  2. helping to implement fixes and features as a contributor;
  3. purchasing support from an IT service provider so additional features can be implemented, documented, tested and/or further supported. At this time, the Whonix project prefers to stay out of recommending any IT service providers. See also Too Difficult.;
  4. embracing the Self Support First Policy and becoming an active user co-developer.

If you would like to help move a backlogged item forward, see also:

In summary, developers view the broader Whonix community as an essential part of the strategy to realize a highly secure platform with a host of valuable features. By assisting with backlogged items, individuals can help fulfill shared goals and the ultimate progression of the Whonix development roadmap. All contributions, big or small, can lead to improvements. This is true even if progress is only incremental or due for later implementation.

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