Suggestion for a new Download page

Todd Freedom_Lover at pobox.com
Thu Feb 5 21:50:03 UTC 2004


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Eric Rostetter wrote:
> Quoting Todd <Freedom_Lover at pobox.com>:
>
>> Sorry to only respond to one small part of this thread, I know
>> there's a lot of other things being discussed here.  But just to
>> point out that since yum configs are version independent, it's not
>> necessary to say "Installing and using yum for Fedora Legacy with
>> Red Hat Linux 7.2."  You can simply say "Installing and using yum
>> for Fedora Legacy," can't you?
>
> Yum configs are not independent (yum1 versus yum2) and the install
> directions are different for different OS versions.  So, no.

Well, until it's determined that FL will be shipping yum2 for RH 8.0
(or until RH 9 goes EOL), I'm working on the assumption that only yum1
needs to be documented.

What's the difference in the install instructions?  You run rpm,
import the keys to your gpg keyring, and optionally enable the yum
service.

>> If a potential user can't or won't do a little thinking on their
>> own and pick the proper version for their RH system, how much more
>> hand holding can a few volunteers here do?
>
> As much as is needed.

That's going to be an awful lot of text.  There's a point at which the
extra documentation that's there to help the completely clueless will
bog down those who are just trying to get up and running fast.  I
don't know exactly where that point is, but it's something to keep in
mind.  A quick start page and a more in depth instruction page might be
quite useful once everything is all documented.  That would keep as
many people happy as possible.

>> The instructions on that page would tell you to grab yum for your
>> RH version from download.fedoralegacy.org and then how to issue the
>> commands to make it automatically update.
>
> You've left out some steps.

I know, I was just trying to illustrate that the instructions can be
general enough to apply to the 3 versions FL is supporting now, IMHO.
Once RH 9 goes EOL, then the instructions will have to consider yum2
and any differences that entails, but that's still a few months away.

>> I suppose that technically, if someone wanted to, a shell script
>> could be written that would go out and grab the latest yum and
>> configure it for the user, sort of like what Ximian used to do (and
>> still does, now that I look) with their gnome releases.  See an
>> example here:
>>
>>     http://www.ximian.com/products/desktop/download.html
>
> We can't even get the apt package QA tested, so there is little hope
> at this stage we can get a custom installer written, tested, and
> documented.

I realize that.  I wasn't suggesting that anyone seriously spend a lot
of time on this.  It's just there to show how far the hand holding
could be taken.  I'm personally of the opinion that anyone who needs
that level of hand holding would be better served upgrading their
system to Fedora Core instead of trying to maintain an older RH
version.  I'm interested in the Legacy project to keep production
servers up and running.  Desktop stuff is of very low priority to me.
Like the Gaim update, that's not going to get my time.

> Mostly it is about organization, but there has been some missing
> content from time to time (like FAQ entries).

I think you guys have done a pretty good job getting things going with
the site.

> Yes, please try to find some time for those QA duties ;)  We really
> need to get more people doing QA testing.

Yep.  I'm surprised that apt hasn't gotten more attention.  It must be
that anyone who's using it already has it installed and isn't in dire
need of getting a FL specific version.  To properly QA the package, I
have to familiarize myself with it.  The SPEC file is much more
complex than the yum one.  Not that it's all that tough to follow, I
just have to make the time to check it out, track down the patches
applied, look over the %pre and %post scripts, etc.  And since I have
no interest in using apt, it's time that feels more like work.  :)

Thanks again for all the work on the web site.

- -- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xD654075A | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
======================================================================
Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let people have
guns... why should we let them have ideas?
    -- Joseph Stalin

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