Fedora extras and the distribution size

[Leonard den Ottolander]

Hello Nathan,

> Problem is, everyone's 
> "xxx" is different, and the line between what belongs in Core vs. 
> extras is gray.

Weird. First you notice this problem, and then you start making
arbitrary proposals of what to move to Extras.

> Define extras as "niche packages, and packages that 
> *functionally* duplicate something already in core".

> Maybe an optional "KDE extras CD" is worth considering.

Not sure what a "KDE extras CD" is... Do you mean the whole of KDE being
"extra"? That would not please a lot of people including myself.

> I believe that core should be about shipping one tool to perform each 
> function, and extras are optional replacements and packages that are 
> slightly left-field. By doing this, I think the core distribution would 
> be down to at most two CDs, which I believe people who don't have 
> unlimited amounts of bandwidth would appreciate.

I don't think Core should just contain one package per function. I think
choice inside Core is a good thing as it avoids fragmentation of the
user base. Of course it is important that packages in Core are well
maintained.

People on dial up should not be downloading CDs in the first place. Get
yourself a friend with a fast connection, join a LUG and get your CDs
from there or buy a cheap copy online. If those scenarios are impossible
it's probably worth investing some time in figuring out how to install
using rpms. If you know which you need you can download them separately
which will save you a lot of bandwidth. Or do an online installation
using your local mirror as file server.

Leonard.

-- 
mount -t life -o ro /dev/dna /genetic/research