PackageKit podcast post

[Jack Aboutboul]

Paul W. Frields wrote:
> http://marilyn.frields.org:8080/~paul/wordpress/?p=1637
>
> OK, ready for you guys to submit around as needed!
>
>   
PackageKit in Fedora 11.

In Fedora 11, we have a number of features that are the result of a 
planned process of maturation. We often put new features into the 
distribution with the purpose of garnering more information on how 
people put a technology to work. Then that information can be digested 
by developers to help them design and refine their software. It’s a 
cultivation mentality: By focusing more attention on advanced 
technologies, we help them mature and improve faster. Including them in 
a popular, high-volume distribution whose mission is to advanced free 
and open source software is a natural strategic fit.

When PackageKit was first introduced to the masses, it was meant to 
smooth out the experience of someone using the free desktop. In Fedora 
9, it provided mainly the functions to which long-time users were 
accustomed. In Fedora 10, the first glimpse of the longer roadmap 
appeared — on-demand codec installation. In Fedora 11, fonts and some 
content types are also automatically handled for users. Entire 
applications are on the horizon.

As PackageKit maintainer Richard Hughes puts it, “Packages really aren’t 
all that interesting” — at least not from the user perspective. The idea 
is that people just want to be able to do what they sat down to do, 
without thinking about the plumbing of their system.

You can listen to this recording, in which I interviewed Richard about 
the motivation behind PackageKit, what’s coming in the future, and the 
danger of oddly-matched clothing. There are other recorded interviews 
for Fedora 11 up at this wiki page. For those of you not using the 
fantastic open codec support in HTML 5 and Firefox 3.1+, you can find 
the MP3 version here.