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. This does not mean "ignored" or "declined". Options: Apply Self Support First Policy / Become a Contributor / Purchase Support.

Introduction

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This wiki chapter gives additional context for 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.

We understand this can be frustrating, especially when it affects your daily usage or your sense of safety. A "Backlogged" label is not a judgment about the importance of your report. It is a statement about limited capacity and current prioritization.

It explains What "Backlogged" Means, outlines What You Can Do, summarizes Why Backlog Exists, points to Existing Workload, and highlights Completed Work.

What "Backlogged" Means

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A "Backlogged" label means the report is tracked as valid or reasonable, but it is not currently scheduled ahead of other work.

  • No active development: Not currently prioritized for developer work (not currently scheduled ahead of other work).
  • No schedule: No planned milestone (no planned date or release target) and 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. Small changes can still require review, testing, documentation updates, release integration, and regression handling.

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

For longer-term direction and current focus, see Security Roadmap for long-term vision and Dev/todo for current developer priorities.

What You Can Do

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

  1. providing Community Feedback;
  2. embracing the Self Support First Policy and becoming an active user co-developer;
  3. helping to implement fixes and features as a contributor;
  4. purchasing support from an IT service provider to implement, document, test and/or further support additional features. The Kicksecure project prefers to stay out of recommending any IT service providers. See also Too Difficult.

If you want to help move a backlogged item forward, the most effective additions are usually concrete and testable, such as clear steps to reproduce, logs, test results, documentation improvements, or a tested patch. Thank you for helping in any of these ways. Repeated requests usually do not change prioritization.

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

In summary, developers view the broader Kicksecure 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 Kicksecure 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.

Why Backlog Exists

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There are several reasons:

  • Developer Time:
    • Even short individual discussions or investigations do not scale (many small requests add up quickly).
      • Speaker analogy: 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 (fixing problems introduced by changes). 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 Kicksecure 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.

Existing Workload

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

1 Large amount of bug reports and feature requests.

1 forums issue tracker backlogarchive.org iconarchive.today icon ; 2 qubes-issues backlogarchive.org iconarchive.today icon

2 Maintenance

3 Maintainability

4 Research

5 More. This list is non-exhaustive.

Completed Work

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To maintain a balanced perspective, please also consider completed work and existing features, not only missing features and open requests.

1 Featuresarchive.org iconarchive.today icon Hardening by Default Comparison with Debian

2 Releasesarchive.org iconarchive.today icon

3 Forums issue tracker: implemented issuesarchive.org iconarchive.today icon

4 Progress Reports

5 Completed, archived development tasks

6 Completed, archived web development tasks

7 Documentation Advanced Documentation Design Wiki Edit History Log [1]

8 Developer Patrick: forum development and support activityarchive.org iconarchive.today icon

9 Developer arraybolt3: forum development and support activityarchive.org iconarchive.today icon

10 More. This list is not exhaustive. Many tasks, such as server administration, do not result in publicly visible activity logs.

Conclusion

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A "Backlogged" label means the issue is considered valid or reasonable, but it is not currently prioritized for developer work and has no planned milestone or ETA (estimated time of arrival). This status can persist for a long time, and even seemingly small requests may involve hidden complexity.

If you are affected by a backlogged item, your report is still useful and remains tracked as valid. The limitation is available developer time and current priorities, not whether the problem matters.

Progress on backlogged items is most likely when the wider Kicksecure community helps reduce developer workload or adds capacity through contributions or funding. Options include applying the Self Support First Policy, providing Community Feedback, contributing as a contributor in line with the Development Discussion Policy, or purchasing external support.

Backlog exists due to limited developer time, maintenance demands, project scope and ecosystem constraints, usability and funding constraints, and the complexity of modern software and (in)security. For context on longer-term direction and current priorities, see Security Roadmap and Dev/todo. For perspective on ongoing effort and outcomes, see Maintenance and the completed work listed above.


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