Fedora Extras is extra

[William M. Quarles]

Shawn wrote:

>>>Mandag 29 november 2004 03:05 skrev Dag Wieers:
>>>For me there's no reason to be incompatible. In fact, by being
>>>incompatible my users are indirectly harmed as they are inable t use
>>>fedora.us or livna.org. (Mind you, if you stay away from these
>>>incompatible packages, you won't notice this).
> 
>>This really makes me happy. I am using kde-redhat, dag and freshrpms,
>>and it seems to work wondefully, there was a tiny issue with redhat-
>>menus recently but that was solved very quickly. The only problem is
>>that you have to repeat this on this list every so often so that people
>>will know what kind of mixing to avoid
> 
> (Non power user here)
> 
> Having no reliable way to know what "kind of mixing to avoid", I fret a
> little doing updates -- a mix of ATRPMS, DAG and fedora.us
> 
> Have gotten stuck in the past where I had to force things or remove
> packages to get updates to go, I view this as a daunting issue to using
> linux especially with the uncertainty involved -- maybe I will always be
> able to get out of the problems I create but...
> 
> There seems to be a lack of clear information on how to handle the
> current situation.  Ok don't mix but if that is necessary how to best
> handle it?
> 

Hi Shawn,

Use APT and use it wisely: pay close attention to its output.  It will 
usually avoid installing a new package if it explicitly breaks 
compatibility, but it also give you the option (when you specify the 
appropriate commandline) of overriding that.

>>From this thread I gleaned (correct me if I am wrong please) that mixing
> with fedora.us is potentially more problematic as they do things a bit
> differently sometimes. 
>    
> Not only that but ATRPMS seems to have better support for running mythtv
> and if in the future other repositories spring up to especially support
> a certain area, it would be nice if they could play with fedora.us.

Apparently you're missed the point.  These other repositories have been 
around a lot longer and have many more dedicated users than Fedora 
Extras currently has.  They also have better reputations for 
compatibility and interoperability.  If you go to my original message on 
the thread, you will see this URL:

<http://www.fedora.us/wiki/RepositoryMixingProblems>

How can one play nicely with someone who has one of their primary 
purposes being to end one's existence?  Seriously, the Fedora Extras 
subproject's aim is to be one big superrepositoty, and attempt to 
deprecate all other repositories.  Read thi Wiki page and the rest of 
this enormous thread and you will have a better idea of what is going 
on.  It is also very ironic that they claim that they want better 
interoperability between packages and have tried to do so by explicitly 
making their packages incompatible with other repositories, sometimes 
even with Fedora Core itself.  The other major Fedora Core-based 
repositories are working together to improve their interoperability.

> Also, I am not in the US and don't want to rely a on repository that is
> restricted by US laws.

Our laws are there for good reasons.  Otherwise, what kind restrictions 
are you afraid of?

> Still I've used mirrors of fedora.redhat.com which is/has(?) merged with
> fedora.us Extras, to get packages I absolutely needed which I couldn't
> find elsewhere (ex. evolution2 on FC2 -- needed as Japanese support on
> 1.4.6 was garbage -- not able to go up to FC3).
> 
> I guess I feel stuck with a risky strategy to try and update my system.
> Well thanks everyone for your work anyway.  If only it weren't so
> confusing and easier to do though...  Maybe it's not such a problem and
> I will keep getting by.

The only advice that I can give is that you should see what other 
repositories people are combining and use that as your basis.  Perhaps 
it would also be good to contact the repositories' mailing lists or 
maintainers and ask them specifically which other repositories are they 
cooperating with to try to maintain interoperability.  I use FreshRPMs 
(the most popular repository for Fedora Core) and Planet CCRMA, and 
those two are working together.  I'm sure that some others are, you 
might find some answers elsewhere on this thread.

----
Good luck,
William