my thoughts on package management

[Jeremy Portzer]

On Thu, 2003-07-24 at 16:12, Paul Iadonisi wrote:


>   Although I don't think anyone at Red Hat is going to tell you 'shut up,'
> I don't think that rpm/up2date has ever included the promise of being able
> to account for custom changes users have made.  Read the section in the release
> notes of the past several releases on the Ximian desktop for evidence of this.
>   Take a look at other vendors, for instance.  Ever decide that Solaris 'ls'
> command was too braindead for your taste and replace it with the GNU coreutils
> (yes, I know, an unlikely scenario, but bear with me)?  Then try to apply a
> patch from Sun that happens to include the ls binary.  Your stuck there, too.

Actually, I used to do that regularly when I was responisble for some
Solaris boxes.  I just installed the GNU tools in another location --
say /usr/gnu/bin -- and modified my $PATH to look for them before the
native OS versions.  Very simple, and doesn't conflick with the Sun
patches at all.  However, that's not as easy with something as complex
as Ximian Desktop, and obviously you have to be responsible for keep
your versions up to date.  (sunfreeware.com makes that easier)

>   My examples aren't exactly perfect, but my point is that given that the
> resources that Red Hat has, (even with the new future addition of outside
> package maintainers), it's very like not going to be enough to meet the needs
> you describe.  Some packages have an inordinate number of ways they can be
> built and Red Hat taking on the responsibility of providing upgrade
> paths for all possibly contingencies is probably corporate suicide.
>   A source based distribution is, in some cases, exactly what some people need.

Agreed.

I find these conversations on mailing lists a bit frustrating, because
some people will join in and be very vocal about their specific needs,
which may or may not match what 99% of people use.  [not focusing this
at Rober specifically, but in general].   How can we, as possible
contributors to the new Red Hat Linux Project, really get a feel for
what the majority of people want?  If only the most vocal come to the
mailing lists, or bugzilla, and make their specific needs know, won't
the silent majority be ignored?  

--Jeremy 

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