FC5T2 ready for even a test release?

Nils Philippsen nphilipp at redhat.com
Thu Jan 26 14:59:48 UTC 2006


On Mon, 2006-01-23 at 05:11 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> goemon at anime.net wrote:
> 
> > On Sun, 22 Jan 2006, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> >
> >> Though I am not a developer I already presented what I believe to be 
> >> compelling arguments against it. Remember again that every feature 
> >> has a associated cost.
> >
> >
> > is the cost of an 'everything' button really so unreasonably high?
> 
> Yes it is. 
> https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-test-list/2006-January/msg01138.html

In that post, you're outlining why you think an Everything install isn't
needed, but I somehow fail to see anything pertaining to cost there.

I would say that because the code was there already (for quite a while),
didn't cause any problems to me and possibly several others (otherwise),
the cost of having it would have to be almost zero, the most of it would
be to hide that option from the uninitiated.

If we see the package selection as a tree of groups, subgroups and
detailed packages, "Everything" is "just" the root node of that tree.
The real problem to me is that at the moment it needs numerous clicks to
select anything beyond a subgroup with its default packages

> > Some of us dislike clicking jillions of buttons on every install. This 
> > seems a step backwards for FC.
> >
> Use kickstart, post installation yum or click on maybe 6 groups or let 
> me know the different use cases where end users would need it.

Currently, kickstart is not an option installations of a single or few
machines, the learning curve is too steep and effort to create a working
kickstart file to high. Besides, if you want to convince other people of
free software, you'd better show them a shiny, glitzy installer right
away, not some cryptic installation script. And trust me, you do want
these people to have everything on their machine, among other reasons
because it's you who will be asked questions if they don't find
something (and you don't want to teach them installing packages over the
phone).

Post installation yum is the best alternative suggested so far -- even I
only want Everything minus all  if only it could cope with the
installation media already downloaded.

Nils
-- 
     Nils Philippsen    /    Red Hat    /    nphilipp at redhat.com
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
 safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."     -- B. Franklin, 1759
 PGP fingerprint:  C4A8 9474 5C4C ADE3 2B8F  656D 47D8 9B65 6951 3011




More information about the fedora-test-list mailing list