[AddictedToMetal]

Most of XBMC could be thrown into Ubuntu's "Multiverse" with very little issue. libdvdcss being the only issue because IIRC it was pulled from the archive. Alternatives I believe exist.

This is to say if the XBMC team even cares. I mean, getting as clean as they can is great and worthwhile but honestly, I wouldn't care about being included in the official repos.

PPAs are great and give the team greater control over updates. Personally, as far as Ubuntu is concerned, I would stick with the PPA.

[spiff]

the main benefit of getting into distros is that we do not have to deal with all the end users having issues installing/compiling/whatever - which are distro specific - and quite frankly steals way more dev time than anyone have any interest in it doing. it would also give us a filter on bug reports so our trac doesn't get overloaded with pebkac/user issues as sadly is the case these days.

[AddictedToMetal]

the main benefit of getting into distros is that we do not have to deal with all the end users having issues installing/compiling/whatever - which are distro specific - and quite frankly steals way more dev time than anyone have any interest in it doing. it would also give us a filter on bug reports so our trac doesn't get overloaded with pebkac/user issues as sadly is the case these days.

Oh totally, but you then have to deal with the constant bug issues that have been fixed in SVN but the Ubuntu repo packages won't be updated without pulling teeth. (trust me I know) This is why I suggested the team stick with the PPA. At least as far as Ubuntu goes.