On Thursday, 13 בMay 2010 23:44:54 Udi Oron wrote: > ... > Luckily, in 2010, some software distributors are responsible enough to > distribute their software in a way that their software is easy and fast > to install and does not break anything, even if it is not packaged in > the best practice available.
Really? Where have you found those dreamland software distributors? I have yet to see a software vendor whose packaging does not make me puke. > Moreover, remember that putting stuff inside a "deb" package does not > mean it won't break your system, or even save you from deleting > important data :-) Exactly. That's why the difference between good/bad packages is not their packaging format, but the (human driven) process to create and maintain them -- in that respect, Debian set a track record for years (which we, humble Fedora people, try to match ;-) > (Actually usually it forces you to install stuff as root). No. It *allways* force you to install software as root. Distributions are managing a complex set of inter-dependent software components, from which users install substatial subsets (1K-2K components on an average desktop). They have to maintain them through upgrades, local config changes etc. -- This is huge and non-trivial activity. You suggest that every user is capable of achieving a similar result by installing his own software, acquired from some "software vendor" which is not involved in the packagin policy/process of the distribution. Also, he/she would install it by themselves (non-root) at some user selectable location. I'll try to be gentle... a quick reality check is called for. You don't have to guess how this model works -- Windows implement it "successfully" for decades. There may be many people thinking this is a good/workable/maintainable scheme. I beg to differ. > So: Speed + Stability + Latest Version vs. "best practice". What would > you choose for your *developer* machine? As a developer *I* choose latest. That's why I use Fedora (I could have chosen Debian-testing and have a similar experience). However, there are many places that have "developers" that need constant hand-holding even for the simplest tasks. If this is the case, I would be giving them Centos/Debian-stable because I know me/someone would have to constantly support them. -- Oron Peled Voice: +972-4-8228492 [email protected] http://users.actcom.co.il/~oron "If it's not source, it's not software." -- www.gnu.org _______________________________________________ Linux-il mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.cs.huji.ac.il/mailman/listinfo/linux-il
