On Fri, 10 Dec 2010, Lucas Levrel wrote:
Le 10 décembre 2010, Bret Busby a écrit :
Ah, but it is not available as a .deb package.
Neither as rpm, etc. It's up to the distro maintainers to do that, so you
should ask to a Debian forum.
"Been there, done that".
It is apparently included in a testing or unstable version of Debian
Linux, yet to be released as "stable".
Not available at present, and no Debian person appears inclined to do
it, for Debian 5.
Some software is available as .deb packages, set up by the software
developers of the particular software. Opera is one (and, only one)
example, of many applications that are released in the different
packages, for installation using the system package management, for the
different Linux distributions.
It is a question of for whom software is written - whether it is written
for the users (in which case, amongst other things, it is provided in
the different packages, for the different distributions), or, whether it
is written for the developers of the software (in which case, the design
(including the interface) is designed to suit the developers, and the
software might be released only as binaries, to make it difficult for
users to install, restricting who may use the software).
So, the question is, are developers of an operating system, expected to
adapt software packages that may run on their syetem, to be easily
installed on their system, or, are the software developers expected to
develop their software to be able to be installed with a minimum of
fuss (and, thus, as packages that can be easily installed using the
operating system package management), on the operating systems on which
the software is said to be able to run?
I expect that software developers who want to increase the usage of
their particular software, would act to make their software as easy to
instal and run, on the particular operating systems for which they
profess the software to be usable and compatible, so as to encourage
more propsective users, to instal and use the software.
It is a bit like some software houses, that provide software that only
runs on MS Windows, such as Legacy genealogy software, Quicken
accounting software, etc - they have previously advised that they have
no intention of porting their software to Linux, and, by so doing,
disenfranchise Linux users (unless the particular Linux users are
willing and capable, to mess around with MS Windows emulation, if the
particular software applications are compatible with Linux based MS
Windows emulators).
Thus, it includes the issue of the degree to which the software
development projects want to increase usage of their product.
If they want to increase usage of the product, then they act to make it
as easy to instal and use, on as many operating systems, as possible.
If not, they simply develop the policy "we have developed this product
for our benefit - take it or leave it, as it is - we are not interested
in making it more usable, or more user-friendly - we are not that
bothered, as long as it suits us", which is the apparent known history
of Microsoft.
And, it is not limited to Microsoft - many web sites exist, that are
designed to work only with Internet Explorer, and, many computer
peripheral devices, whether they be webcms, printers, or whatever, are
designed to work fully with MS Windows, and, not at all, or, with
limited funtionality, with Linux. Some companies do well with their
hardware devices, Like Samsung, with its printers and multifunction
devices, that run well with Linux, using the Samsung Unified Linux
Driver, and, others simply treat Linux users with contempt.
Or you could install by hand from the archive. It's not so hard, but you
may lack dependencies if you really are on Debian etch:
(http://www.seamonkey-project.org/doc/2.0/system-requirements)
The following distributions should provide everything needed:
* Debian "Lenny" (5.0.x) (or later)
I am using Debian "lenny", which is the current Debian "stable" version.
"etch" is now "oldstable" and obsolete.
I use the version of Iceape for "etch" which is, I believe, Debian 4,
as that is the latest version of Iceape or a Seamonkey version, that is
available to run on mys system, and, as previously mentioned, that
version of Iceape is about 4 years old.
Installing the binary, or whatever the tar/zip or whatever files is, is,
from my experience, messy and difficult, and I had done that in the
past, with a netscape or mozilla browser suite, and ended up having to
instal, seven dfirectories down.
The process is best described as a Kafkaesque nightmare, and, it is
probably easier to make friends with a cthulu, or the creature that
Gandalf was fighting, when he fell off the bridge.
(BTW, why choose Debian if you want a cutting edge and easy to manage
distribution?)
It has been my experience, that, for the most part, Debian has been a
more stable system than some others, and, that package installation and
maintenance, when using the Debian package management, has been
superior.
Ubuntu, from my experience, in being more "cutting edge", has always
been no more than a "testing" system, and, has not become a stable
version, until the support on an LTS version, is about to end. Ubuntu
8.04LTS, is almost stable. My wife has blamed 10.04LTS for the
destruction of the system and data on her unreplaceable computer, and
she is a systems developer. Ubuntu 10.04 LTS seems to have eaten her
partition table, or, something at that level, that pointed to evrything
on the HDD. Now, after installing Ubuntu 10.04LTS, the (apparently
unrepaceable) HDD is apparently wrecked.
Apart from system upgrades, which, I have found to destroy systems and
data, Debian has generally been a relatively stable distribution, and,
quite useable with its package management.
It is generally only with system upgrades, that Debian becomes
destructive, from my experience.
But then, I prefer ease of use, stability, and functionality, which is
why I believe Star Office 5.2, to be far superior to Open office, but
that is another story...
--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............
"So once you do know what the question actually is,
you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
A Trilogy In Four Parts",
written by Douglas Adams,
published by Pan Books, 1992
....................................................
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