[$] Reconsidering ffmpeg in Debian
For better or for worse, forks are a part of the free software landscape.
Often a fork will result in a reinvigorated development community and the
removal of unneeded roadblocks. But not all forks work out well. What is
a distributor to do if, at some point, it concludes that it chose wrongly
when it followed a fork of an important project? Going back to the
original may not always be an easy thing to do, even if there appears to be
a consensus for that move. The presence of security concerns can make such
a change even harder to contemplate. The recent discussion on welcoming
ffmpeg back into Debian illustrates the potential hazards nicely.