To make bug report to Debian on Sid, one must have Debian Sid installation. As quoted here,
Debian Sid is forever doomed to being unstable.
and,
There are no “unstable” full CD or DVD images. Due to the fact that the packages in “unstable” change so quickly
So, can you make a bug report to Debian Sid through Debian BTS on an Ubuntu matter? (Ubuntu is supposed to be based on a mix of Debian Testing and Sid, but it is not a direct Debian Testing or Debian Sid derivative.) Would the Debian developers (even if some also package for Ubuntu) take heed of such a bug report? How can you make use of Debian BTS through Ubuntu? If you are only an Ubuntu user, but never used Debian Sid, how would you know, if that ‘bug’ is a Debian Sid bug?
You can’t just ask users to go ask Debian Sid developers on problems of Ubuntu, can you?
If you can demonstrate that the bug exists in the Debian Sid package, then you can file the bug against Sid.
Let’s use the example of those files in python-apt-common. If you pull the source package in Sid, and those files are indeed still there, then you have demonstrated that the problem still exists in Sid.
It’s existence in Ubuntu is relevant to us, but not relevant to the Debian bug report.
The important element is that the package maintainer on the other end of the bug report must be able to reproduce the problem reliably from your instructions on their test system.
You can often get faster action on a well-researched obvious bug by including a recommended solution (often, but not always, in the form of a patch). Your recommendation, if any, should show that you did your homework.
Example: If removing ancient distro files from python-apt-common, I would clearly show why the file is obsolete: “Foobian’s last release was June 2014, and their website last updated in August 2014.”
To demonstrate that a bug exists in the Debian Sid, you have to run Debian Sid.
What if the user had never heard of Debian Sid? Never used Debian, either Stable or Testing? Never heard that Ubuntu is a mix of Debian Sid and Testing? Just an ordinary user with no connection with Debian at all?
Can anyone ask/report a bug on Linux Mint or Zorin or Elementary as an Ubuntu bug in Ubuntu bug reporting? Would an Ubuntu developer heed it?
It is a quality problem. The problems of the original distro/OS comes along to the forked distro, however small or large they are. (This templates ‘problem’ is not a life and death one, but lot of junk not checked for years. More than a decade.)
Exactly the same advise applies for derivatives of Ubuntu - they have to demonstrate that the same issue exists on Debian and/or Ubuntu.
If they don’t know about Debian or Ubuntu bug reporting then they should contact their distro maintainers for further advise and use their bug reporting procedures.
If they aren’t knowledgeable to understand how to download Debian Testing & upgrade to Sid so that they can test and report against that, then I would say at a minimum test and report against Debian Testing.
If they are still having difficulties they should be seeking advise from their distro.
That’s exactly what I am saying. If your distro is Ubuntu, you talk to those who create it, right? You don’t go looking for a never-heard of distro, such as Debian Sid, would you? The normal non-geeky user.
The answer to your original question is “yes,” but a “normal, non-geeky user” (of Ubuntu, which is all that is ultimately relevant here) wouldn’t even have such a question. They wouldn’t even have found the bug that is likely the inspiration for this post. But if they found something that originates in Debian, they would use ubuntu-bug to file their bug and Ubuntu triagers would push it upstream.
You think its a bug?
That’s a bunch of junk. A bug might trouble, but junk is just junk. The last time, I mentioned about this was 6 years ago. They were there in 2010 too. Kali is a latest addition. There are more junk files, pretty heavy ones, getting copied twice every year for decade or so.
Back to topic. Asking people to talk to Debian Sid developers won’t help, would it?