Fedora, KDE and Printing Package Policy Stinks

[Keith]

On Wed, 2004-04-21 at 06:18, Keven Ring wrote:
> Keith wrote:
> 
> >On Tue, 2004-04-20 at 07:54, Jon Shorie wrote:
> >  
> >
> >>>I have a binary print server that requires LPRng, however
> >>>the folks at KDE and/or Fedora Developing have made it so
> >>>that CUPS is required to be installed to install KDE base.
> >>>This policy is short sighted and this forcing the adoption
> >>>of a print server system is anti-Open Source and choice.
> >>>I hope that this policy by Fedora Development and/or KDE
> >>>will stop now.
> >>> The Fedora development team do not have to support LPRng
> >>>but the way that they have forced CUPS down the throats of
> >>>Fedora users is absolutely wrong.
> >>>
> I have taken this off-list....
> 
> Are you suggesting that the Fedora team does not support *any* printing 
> package?  I mean, if they don't have to support LPRng, and they are bad 
> for forcing CUPS down your throat, then, it sounds like they are damned 
> if they do, damned if they don't.
> 

No, Requiring CUPS to install KDE is not the correct procedure.


> So, to answer your specific question, "Why does the KDE RPMs require 
> CUPS".  Because KDE has items which require print capabilities, and the 
> Fedora team decided to use CUPS for their SYSTEM WIDE printing 
> mechanism.  If you don't agree with their choice of CUPS, talk to them 
> on the -devel list, not on a PRODUCTION RELEASE list.
> 

 Requiring CUPS to install KDE isn't the proper way to distribute open
source. Mandrake, SuSE and many other distributions don't force CUPS
down the throats of the end user to install KDE.


> I'm sure KDE can use either CUPS or LPRng, or, if you really want, a 
> hammer and a chisel.  What you are *whining* about is that you were not 
> presented with an option "Shall I install CUPS, the most widely used 
> UNIX Printing Solution, or LPRng to support your arcane binary print 
> server that is not RFC 1179 compliant"

 Whining is good for development and the most usability for the end
user. If people aren't allowed to complain about the product then 
the developers and end user have no communication and the product sucks.


>  during the install.  Of course, 
> if they did that, the installer would be 1000x more complicated than it 
> currently is, and no one would use it.

 KDE does not require CUPS, it is Red Hat & Fedora development team
that  require CUPS to install KDE. 



-- 
Best Regards,  Keith
NW Oregon Radio http://kilowatt-radio.org/
Pax melior est quam iustissimum bellum.