On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 09:30:25PM +0100, Thomas de Roo wrote: > Hello everybody, > > I like your opinion on the following: > Because Transmission switched from gtk+-2 to gtk*-3, I installed an > older version as I don't have gtk+-3 on my box. The same with tigervnc, > it switched from autoconf to cmake, what I don't have, so I installed an > older version. What would you do? Upgrade to the latest including all > dependencies, or install an older version of a piece of software, that > better matches your box? > > Thanks for your input... > > Groet, > Thomas
For those packages I can't comment - never used either, and without looking them up I've no idea what they do. But in general - 1. moan about the change, usually queietly and to myself ;) 2. look to see if I still use the package. 3. look to see if there is an alternative package. 4. question if I feel safe using an old unsupported version - if I _don't_ feel safe (e.g. web browser "engines"), look to see if there is long-term support from a distro. e.g. on my current systems I've been using webkit(gtk)-1.8 : looks as if ubuntu are notionally supporting this, so I've moved to 1.8.3 while I consider the options. 5. take a look at the combinations for my whole desktop. At the moment, I'm unhappy with the way gnome is moving and I've at last experimented with LibreOffice to replace gnumeric and abiword : on my current machines that is pretty much a done deal (I've now got enough cpu cycles and big enough disks, it's just a question of converting ALL the old data). I've thought about dropping gtk+-3, but concluded that I need to keep gucharmap, so I'll be looking to see if I can build it without the *recommended* gnome dependencies (e.g introspection, gconf, gtk-doc) - maybe I'll manage, maybe I'll have to go back and add some or all of them. Some things I could revert to older gtk+-2 versions, e.g. gvolwheel, and I plan to replace gcalctool and evince with the mate versions without worrying. Some of this is just a simple matter of looking for alternatives and deciding if they work for me, but in the end I need to build the new desktop packages, give them some basic testing and alter my build scripts to try out the new things in a fresh build - if the worst comes to the worst, I'll go back to my current desktop and evaluate what other choices remain! And then I'll probably have to repeat the exercise in a few months (e.g. moving to parole instead of totem means I'll be using the old gstreamer versions, in a few months I might decide that is no longer a viable option for me). Summary - whatever you, or I, do comes down to our own comfort zones and ultimately to how much time we can spend on it. The bad side of coming here instead of using $BIGDISTRO is that from time to time, at moments which aren't totally of our own choosing, we have to spend a lot of time reviewing our options. Of course, users of any distro will get similar moemnts when they have to decide whether to jump ship to a different distro. ĸen -- das eine Mal als Tragödie, das andere Mal als Farce -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-support FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
