KDE 4.2 requires local MySQL Server

[Andreas M. Kirchwitz]

Arthur Pemberton <pemboa at gmail.com> wrote:

 > By your comment one would think that installing mysql-server brings
 > some great evil with it.
 
For a typical installation of a "desktop workstation", none of the
packages in the "Servers" section needs to added. Makes sense. There's
no need for so-called servers on a desktop machine.

The only exception here is CUPS if you want to print documents, but
CUPS works like a typical Unix daemon. There's one central daemon for
all users on the system. If CUPS would be used like KDE uses MySQL,
every application had to start its own local copy of the CUPS daemon.

If MySQL is installed, this also means that self-compiled software
automatically finds the MySQL installation and compiles in support
for MySQL and links with MySQL libraries. This can have security
implications. Sure, most software may offer switches to disable
MySQL support, but how many people know that they now have a MySQL
server installation on their system? During the installation of
Fedora 10, most people haven't added any database packages. But
now all users with KDE silently get a MySQL server installation.

No matter if KDE's new dependency on MySQL is good or bad, it would
have been fair to make Fedora users aware of that significant change
to their system setup (that automatically comes with the updates).
Most people might not care (because they never compile anything
on their own, and they maybe don't even know what a "MySQL" is ;-)
but that should never be a valid reason to stop keeping those users
informed who actually care.

I'm absolutely sure there wasn't any bad intention.
However, there's room for improvement. ;-)

	Greetings, Andreas