XMMS (was: Re: rawhide report: 20050405 changes)

[Michael A. Peters]

On 04/05/2005 07:25:06 PM, Mike Bird wrote:
> Thanks to everyone who helped clarify the situation today.
> 
> Redhat developers bumping useful packages out of Core are giving
> the impression that Extras are just a yum away.  This is false
> but Redhat developers may not yet be aware that this is false.

I don't think it is false.

There may be some packages that don't get picked up, but if someone  
really cares about it, it will be picked up by someone in extras - and  
maybe even better maintained.

I reported in FC3T2 that the balsa package had problems solved by one  
point release from upstream - but that didn't make FC3 for whatever  
reason. I'm betting that in Extras it will get better attention because  
it will be maintained by someone who cares enough about balsa to do so.

Moving stuff to Extras is good for everyone because it reduces the load  
on Red Hat allowing them to focus on putting out the best of the  
mainstrain packages (OO.o, Evolution, etc.) and allows the enthusiasts  
who prefer the alternatives to test and use and give feedback on what  
isn't being pushed (at the moment) by Fedora/Redhat as their mainstream  
packages.

In fact - that's the very reason I voiced for AbiWord/Gnumeric/Balsa  
being moved to Extras - For me, they are an epiphany of what Gnome  
office apps should be, OO.o and Evolution I personally think are  
bloated - I don't want to have to buy new hardware, there's enough  
industrial waste ... But for functionallity that I don't need but  
corporate does, OO.o and Evolution will be the mainstream apps in  
Fedora for some time, so I'm guessing they will get better attention in  
Extras than they do in Core.

-=-

I also want to note that I have seen the Extras people quite responsive  
on the Extras list when things are brought up - I asked about some perl  
packages and was quickly responded to with some links to Extras  
developers who had builds of them, they weren't submitted to Extras -  
but they were there for someone to grab and look at who did want to  
submit them.

I also mentioned some confusion on the wiki and it was fixed the very  
next day.

That list, btw, is where discussion about Extras and how it can be  
improved should be taking place.

What's currently in the Extras repository for Fedora is not all that  
there is, check out (and participate) in the Extras mailing list - I  
mostly lurk there, but there is a lot going on - it is moving - and it  
is better to do something the right way than to have to do it twice.

-- 
Michael A. Peters
http://mpeters.us/