Multilib Middle-Ground

[Rahul Sundaram]

Les Mikesell wrote:

  In fact, I don't
> see any reason any java code needs to be specialized for a distribution 
> or included in its own repository.  Why not just make fedora work with 
> an external repo for java that works across distributions/versions and 
> avoid the issue entirely instead of shipping something that isn't quite 
> java?  Even when a real java can be included, what is the point of 
> having specialized distro/version packages of the apps that don't need 
> specialization?

There is no "specialization" usually necessary for including software in 
the repository. Fedora avoids specialization by being close to upstream 
usually. Relying on a external repository for Java would mean that we 
can't include any Java programs within Fedora. Parts of Openoffice.org, 
Eclipse and dozens of programs were introduced into the repository 
because of the work that went into GCJ, classpath etc and even OpenJDK 
has benefited from that now.

Rahul