Comment 5 for bug 340970

The issue is worse than as reported above.

apport in Ubuntu 14.10 beta1 won't even let you report a bug in an application when ANY package in the system is not the absolute latest!

I got a core-dump crash in Rhythmbox and this was the eventual result from apport (when I came across it on my screen hours later):

The problem cannot be reported:

You have some obsolete package versions installed. Please upgrade the following packages and check if the problem still occurs:

acl, apt, apt-utils, bsdutils, cgmanager, coreutils, dbus, dbus-x11, dictionaries-common, enchant, firefox, geoip-database, gettext, gettext-base, gir1.2-gdkpixbuf-2.0, gir1.2-gst-plugins-base-1.0, gir1.2-gstreamer-1.0, gir1.2-gtk-3.0, gir1.2-javascriptcoregtk-3.0, gir1.2-peas-1.0, gir1.2-soup-2.4, gir1.2-webkit-3.0, glib-networking, glib-networking-common, glib-networking-services, groff-base, gstreamer1.0-plugins-base, gstreamer1.0-plugins-good, gstreamer1.0-pulseaudio, gstreamer1.0-x, gvfs, gvfs-backends, gvfs-common, gvfs-daemons, gvfs-libs, iproute2, isc-dhcp-client, isc-dhcp-common, libacl1, libapparmor1, libapt-inst1.5, libapt-pkg-perl, libapt-pkg4.12, libarchive13, libasprintf-dev, libasprintf0c2, libattr1, libblkid1, libbsd0, libburn4, libcap-ng0, libcgmanager0, libclone-perl, libcups2, libcurl3-gnutls, libdbus-1-3, libdmapsharing-3.0-2, libelf1, libenchant1c2a, libexif12, libfile-fcntllock-perl, libfreetype6, libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0, libgdk-pixbuf2.0-common, libgettextpo-dev, libgettextpo0, libglib2.0-0, libglib2.0-data, libgpg-error0, libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0, libgstreamer-plugins-good1.0-0, libgstreamer1.0-0, libgtk-3-0, libgtk-3-bin, libgtk-3-common, libgudev-1.0-0, libhunspell-1.3-0, libimobiledevice4, libio-pty-perl, libisofs6, libjavascriptcoregtk-3.0-0, libldap-2.4-2, liblist-moreutils-perl, liblocale-gettext-perl, libmirclient8, libmirclientplatform-mesa, libmircommon1, libmount1, libmpdec2, libnet-dns-perl, libnet-libidn-perl, libnet-ssleay-perl, liborc-0.4-0, libpam-systemd, libparted2, libpeas-1.0-0, libpeas-common, libperlio-gzip-perl, libpopt0, libpulse0, libpython2.7, libpython2.7-minimal, libpython2.7-stdlib, libpython3.4, libpython3.4-minimal, libpython3.4-stdlib, librsvg2-2, librsvg2-common, libsepol1, libsmartcols1, libsmbclient, libsocket6-perl, libsoup-gnome2.4-1, libsoup2.4-1, libsqlite3-0, libstartup-notification0, libsub-identify-perl, libsub-name-perl, libsystemd-daemon0, libsystemd-journal0, libsystemd-login0, libtelepathy-glib0, libtext-charwidth-perl, libtext-iconv-perl, libtext-soundex-perl, libudev1, libuuid1, libwbclient0, libwebkitgtk-3.0-0, libwebkitgtk-3.0-common, libxcb-util0, lintian, mount, multiarch-support, parted, perl, perl-base, perl-modules, python-apt-common, python-gi, python-gobject, python2.7, python2.7-minimal, python3-apt, python3-gi, python3.4, python3.4-minimal, samba-libs, systemd, systemd-shim, t1utils, tzdata, udev, usbmuxd, util-linux, uuid-runtime, x11-common

So, on how many levels is this wrong?

First, this problem may not be easy to reproduce. So throwing away the bug report "until every package is updated" will mean the bug just doesn't get reported, which means it will never be fixed.

Second, the bug is almost certainly not fixed by installing any of those updates.

Third, the package containing the bug isn't even in the list of things-that-need-updates!!!
It won't report a core dump in rhythmbox because I haven't updated Firefox? Come on!

Fourth, I just installed this system a few days ago, from the very latest release media available (Ubu Gnome 14.10 beta1). Refusing to even report the bugs IN THE RELEASE MEDIA is foolish. Not everybody lives on a gigabit connection and perhaps
a few people actually want to run software that they have the source code for -- not just the latest binary that somebody threw on a server somewhere.

Fifth, most people are NEVER going to have the absolute latest everything installed. Poof, no bug reports!

All this is explainable if you consider that the apport maintainers might prefer if FEWER bugs were filed. It's so much simpler to maintain packages when the system won't let bugs be reported against them -- not even crashes that produce core dumps.

You could simplify both the user interaction and eliminate many of the other bugs reported against apport if you just
insert "exit(0)" as the first line of the main routine of apport. This is a much more straightforward way to prevent end users from filing bugs.