I created https://github.com/SublimeBundles when we were planning to do that stuff ourselves. We had an issue where we discussed the process regarding this but it seems that @darinmorrison deleted the repo. Basically we wanted to set up a special channel for Package Control and modify that to ask if the user wants to update all default packages with community-updated versions, including functionality to reset them and to select only specific packages. We then wanted to base the packages on up-to-date tmBundle equivalents and add ST-specific stuff. However, no progress has been made yet.

We also have to consider potential copyright issues regarding uploading (and modifying) the bundled packages since afaik there are non included.

There is https://github.com/SublimeBundles/sublime_package_control/issues/1 but I don't think it contains much useful information.

Obviously it would be better all 'round if Sublime Text does it officially and then commits to regular updates with the updated base packages. It has considerable positives, it's crazy not to it, I wouldn't understand not doing it.

A community driven approach has a lot of problems. The packages need to fully replace the base packages which isn't straight forward. Working together with Package Control I think would be one way to do it. But I think it's beyond the scope of Package Control.

There would be less contributions too if it's done as community initiative alone. Admittedly I'm not sure I would contribute much myself if it's not explicitly official. Even if Sublime Text endorsed a community effort, I think it's still not enough. It's easier to package the base packages with the core to the benefit of everyone.

The copyright issues. What's the deal here? Yes, can anyone upload and modify the packages? Does anyone know what license would be packaged required?

Also, I must note that I think open sourcing the base packages under a CLA is waste of time. I think there would be very little value in doing this. :) I'd actually be more annoyed by this than if they weren’t open sourced at all. And I'm deadly serious about that.

There would be less contributions too if it's done as community initiative alone.

Maybe, maybe not. Either way, the less the developer has to deal with things like packages the more time he has to focus on the actually closed source part. And past has shown that usually nothing is done at all since there are still a lot of unresolved issues.

Just stumbled upon this again.

Syntax-related packages are now open-sourced on https://github.com/sublimehq/Packages, however the "core" packages (i.e. Default, Theme - Default, Color Scheme - Default) are not. Can we close this anyway?