Core vs. Extras

[Don Russell]

> Moot point, as laziness is the primary reason why Joe User chooses an
> everything-install in the fear that manual selection of packages would be
> to complicated or time consuming. Despite the availability of tools like
> Yum, it's still considered too inconvenient to add missing pieces after
> installation (and system-config-packages is a dead end with regard to
> adding software to an up-to-date FC). And do those people only install
> everything, or do they also use everything? Where is the benefit of users
> who install everything but use only a fraction of the packages? For most
> of the Extras users it makes no sense to install every package from
> Extras.

When I install Fedora, I usually do an "install everything"... not so 
much out of laziness, but from ignorance: I don't know what I need or 
don't need. Often the little micro-descriptions of the packages are too 
vague to be much real use. Disk space is cheap like borchst, I install 
it all and let the parts I don't use sit there polarizing little 
magnetic particles in a predictable fashion.

Not to mention the time it takes to go through all the packages.. never 
mind.. just install all of it. As I learn more I use more. If parts 
weren't installed, I may not know about them.

Case in point... ethereal... naw, who needs it? I'm glad I installed 
it... it's a great tool and it's saved my bacon more than once.

I wish there were an easier way to say "install all packages, but only 
these languages..." As it is I have installed a lot of language stuff I 
KNOW I'll never need/use/want.

I think it would be a nice addition if yum/up2date were already 
configured for extras, so if I learned that I needed/wanted some package 
(from EXTRAS) I could just say "yum install newpackage" and it would do it.