Fedora Project launches Pre-Extras

[W. Guy Thomas]

On Sat, 2004-12-18 at 23:13 +0100, Dag Wieers wrote:
> On Sat, 18 Dec 2004, Jeff Spaleta wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:58:45 +0100, nodata <fedora at nodata.co.uk> wrote:
> > > An rpm tool doesn't care about the filename, so why remove it?
> > 
> > You have missed the point entirely.   The filaname for an rpm is
> > typically constructed from a number of header tags as part of the
> > build process. The distrotags that are being used arent just in the
> > filename they are in the RELEASE tag. You can have this sort of
> > information in the filename without having it in the RELEASE tag.
> > Maybe you don't understand, the rpm tool does care about what is in
> > the RELEASE tag, because the release tag is used during version
> > comparisons when you want to decide what is newer or older for
> > updates.
> 
> Jeff, I know you didn't read the whole thread, but let me give you a 
> summary:
> 
> The current scheme has the following advantages:
> 
>  + It does not require a change to RPM (and works for _all_ distributions)
> 
>  + It does not require a change to other RPM based tools like 
>    Yum/Apt/up2date/smart
> 
>  + It allows the user to recognize the vendor:
> 
>    + from the filename (ls)
>    + from the package-list output (rpm -qa)
>    + from the output of tools like Yum/Apt/up2date/smart
> 
>  + It allows the user to recognize what distribution it was build for
> 
>    + from the filename (ls)
>    + from the package-list output (rpm -qa)
>    + from the output of tools like Yum/Apt/up2date/smart
> 
>  + It enables users to do file manipulations based on the filename
> 
>  + It allows people to build trust for packages because the source becomes 
>    visible (this works in both ways, if a package is good or bad)
> 
>  + It does not intervene with version comparison in a dramatic way (as 
>    the release tag only makes sense in a single vendor namespace anyway)
> 
> 
> Seth calls it branding, which is a term that disregards all these 
> advantages.
> 
> PS Can you please not reply with paragraphs that span my whole terminal 
> window as I tend to skim these anyway. Please stick to the point.
> 
> --   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
> [all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]
> 

I am *all over* that. Sounds like a great breakdown of the advantages.
I like it.

-- 
=Guy