desktop-common in the platform seed is what all Ubuntu flavors and Ubuntu Desktop pull in to their images. We need to ensure that all parties are aware of the contents of this seed. Additionally, we should also aim to:

• allow affected parties to voice concerns or questions.
• ensure that the rationale for inclusion is clear and agreed upon.
• clearly define a process which a party can appeal to the inclusion of a package in this seed.

The Process

The package you wish to propose inclusion of should already be in Main. If it is not in Main, you need to follow the MainInclusionRequest process.

To begin the process of including a new package in desktop-common, send an email to the ubuntu-release mailing list which answers the following questions:

1. What is the purpose of this package? What does it do and why is it important to include this by default? Is there a user-facing impact of including this package by default?
2. How long has this package been in Main? Are there any open CVEs or high (or greater) priority bugs, or any other known issues with it?
3. Who takes responsibility for this package and what is the best way to contact them?

If the package would have a user-facing impact (such as a daemon), there should be an aging period of one week to allow flavor teams who include this seed to review the proposal and raise any objections before the package is added. These objections should be emailed to ubuntu-release.

If the package does not have a user-facing impact, you are free to add it to the seed immediately.

Should an objection be stated on the ubuntu-release mailing list during or after the applicable aging period, an attempt should be made by the team responsible for the package to address or provide an explanation for the issues raised, and both parties should come up with a plan to resolve the issues. If the issues cannot be resolved, the package needs to be removed from the seed*. In the event that the party who raised the objections is no longer a seed owner (due to the discontinuation of the flavor or for other reasons), the proposal may be re-raised on the mailing list.

If no objections are stated, the package must be added to the seed, with a link to the proposal on the mailing list in the commit message.

* The Ubuntu Technical Board can override a package's removal or inclusion in this seed.