On Thu, 07 Dec 2006 00:11:29 +0200, Alexandru Mincu wrote: > I sent this earlier and it wasn't received so I resend it now...
It was received, but you didn't see it because you are using GMail, which treated it as a duplicate of the mail you'd sent. > They are trying to remove the old UNIX file system scheme with the/bin > /etc /usr /var, etc directories and are trying to implement a little > more intuitive version of the file system hierarchy. There is no intuition involved in either, it's just a matter of what you are used to. Don't confuse "familiar" with "intuitive". > I know the opinions on this are shared and some people like the old > arrangement, but believe me I've seen lots of new users that come to > Linux and don't understand a thing from the file system arrangement. Why should they? They are new users and as such wouldn't be expected to understand the intricacies of the filesystem. But that doesn't matter, the package manager takes care of putting files in the correct place and the desktop menus and icons take care of launching the programs from wherever they are. > The compatibility problem can be solved by creating links for each > directory in the old scheme to a new one that contains links to > programs,libs,etc each in their place. What compatibility problem? Linux is different from Windows in this, and many other, more significant, regards, but Linux is not Windows. It is, by definition, different. Why should it jump through hoops and make life more difficult for developers, administrators and experienced users just to imitate a completely different OS's way of doing things. Next you'll be advocating that Gentoo devs add spyware to programs to make it more like Windows... > I think Gentoo has the power to give the user this choice, and since > Gentoo it's all about choices I think the developers here can make this > happen and make it well. Or they can make the choice not to do this. > I propose a new USE flag or any other option that portage supports and > the modifications needed to install each program in it's directory and > create the links to their places. Bear in mind that most of the work done by ebuilds is based on the upstream installation script. Staying close to upstream wherever possible is a basic principle. Your proposal would go against that and force developers to rewrite the install portion of every ebuild, as well as sending a message to the upstream devs that their method isn't good enough for Gentoo. another important question in this case is "who supports the software when it doesn't work properly?" Upstream devs would ignore bug reports from Gentoo users and devs because of the non-standard installation. > I want to ask the developer community if it is willing to put this in > practice and give the Gentoo users another choice to make their Linux > system the way they want it and like and understand it and not the way > others do or did. Did it ever occur to you that there are good reasons why so many others do it the way they do? -- Neil Bothwick Ask a silly person, get a silly answer
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