Questions about some default packages Fedora project

[Jean Francois Martinez]

On Sun, 2003-11-02 at 07:56, Didier Casse wrote:
> Hi,
>    I'm new at this Fedora concept and I would like to ask the following
> questions:
> 
> 1. How come we only have a limited number of Window Managers in Fedora?
> i.e only (GNOME, KDE and twm)
> 
> Why don't we include more robust or eye-candy desktops such as Fluxbox,
> Enlightenment, XFCE, etc... ?
> 

A month ago I detailed the drawbacks of redundant software: -takes
resources to package and test  -some of it ends becoming unmaintained
by original author and after a while no longer compiles -security holes:
the more software, the more you have, specially when maintenance is not
active  -confuses users: "which window manager between 10?  which web
server between 8?"


For including a piece of redundant software two conditions have to be
met: a) it has a definite ecological niche where it is head and
shoulders superior to the defending champion (and a lot of people are
in this niche)  and/or b) it has a sizable community of users (eg VI
and Emacs)

The above is for Fedora proper.  Rules for repositories could be more
relaxed.


> 2. If we have created some of our own programs, for instance I created
> pdfmerge/pdfmerge4unix (program which merges any number of pdf files),
> [I know it's a small thing but it was just an example! ;-p]
> which is on SF.net, and I wish to make it available to the Fedora
> project/users since it's a useful program. Where do I submit my rpm
> packages to?
> 
> Is it possible to make it available to apt-repositories of Fedora?
> 
> 3. Why don't we have a lot of packagers available at hand compared to
> Debian? I think all of you are aware that the apt of Debian covers a wider
> range of packages than Fedora/RH.
> 
> Debian also have several maintainers which takes care of all their
> packages issues. Why don't we have the same concept in Fedora?
> 

Debian is IMHO a fine example of what NOT to do:  the only time I got
a headache installing Linux was with Debian while I struggled with
program after program doing the same thing some of them with no
ecological niche or one who was quickly closing.

I will also recall again the problem of programs whose maintenance
stops: you include a marginal program in the distribution, some users
see it and use it because of this, the maintenance stops and after a
while the program no longer compiles/works properly against new versions
of libraries and kernel.  If you withdraw it then you betray those users
who adopted it because of YOU, if you keep it you will be burning a lot
of resources for a program who concerns only a limited number of people



> 
> With kind regards,
> 
> Didier.
> 
> ---
> PhD student
> 
> Singapore Synchrotron Light Source (SSLS)
> 5 Research Link,
> Singapore 117603
> 
> Email: slsbdfc at nus dot edu dot sg \or\ 
> didierbe at sps dot nus dot edu dot sg
> Website: http://ssls.nus.edu.sg
> 
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Jean Francois Martinez <jfm512 at free.fr>