Fedora Extras is extra

[John Summerfield]

On Monday 29 November 2004 19:07, Axel Thimm wrote:
> Or let me rephrase the problem, why do some people insist that
> replacing packages is bad?

I used to be a systems programmer, a member of a team responsible for maintain 
the system software on multisquillion dollar IBM mainframes.

One of the things I learned there is that every step from the standard way of 
doing things brings more headaches.

Whenever we customised IBM's software (and we did), we needed a plan to ensure 
a smooth transition to the next IBM release.

Whenever we installed software from another vendor (and we did), we needed a 
plan to ensure that the different sets of software worked together smoothly, 
and to be sure we could update smoothly to the next releases of each.

There is a reason RH highlights that you cannot upgrade a system with Ximian's 
Gnome packages in place: Ximian's packages are different (why else would 
anyone want them) and conflict with what RH provides. I expect no less.

If I want to package software for RHEL or Fedora Core I will target a specific 
environment, most probably a standard install with no third-party extras. 
What else _can_ I do? Unless I'm enhancing one of those extras of course. 
It's up to administrators (often the users) to ensure that they don't have 
conflicting packages, of they do, to have a plan to work around the 
difficulties that will arise.

I will, of course, expect you to read the documentation I provide, before 
installing and maybe before acquiring the sotware.



-- 
Cheers
John