Fwd: Octave?

[Gregory Maxwell]

On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:42:54 -0500, Matthew Miller <mattdm at mattdm.org> wrote:
> While this should be taken with the normal caution around forward-looking
> statements, I don't think that this will necessarily be the case, especially
> for special-domain programs like Octave. With FC-mumble-mumble-5,
> installing packages from Extras will be as easy as installing packages from
> Core. And, since they can be maintained by someone specialized in the
> particular field and well-versed in the actual program -- maybe someone who
> *just* maintains that package with no other Fedora workload -- I expect many
> Extras packages to get *better* maintenance than they would in Core.

Achieving that without ending up with FC-mumble coming out without an
x (insert package in extras) that will work on it being available for
weeks will be quite an accomplishment. Without this level of assurance
we're asking users that depend on 'extras' packages to undertake a
difficult additional step of comparing the packages they use against
the available extras prior to upgrading (since compatibility is broken
from time to time).

As far as installing ease, unless you mean that extras will be
available as an additional DVD image, and the installer prompts the
user for additional disks so they can be added to the package
selection (and the bloat-me-harder everything install) then we will
have not achieved the same ease as packages in the base install.

If extras do indeed turn out to be so well maintained and easy to
install that my concerns turn out warrentless, then we really should
be moving the bulk of the distribution into extras.