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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Keeping the download size manageable
From:       Neil Stevens <neil () qualityassistant ! com>
Date:       2001-09-22 14:54:50
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KDE has grown.  Qt has grown.  Both have many new features, and work a lot 
better with the existing features.

All this growth hasn't come for free, though.  There's one area where 
there's been a cost - download size.

qt-1.45.tar.gz        2,725,237
kdelibs-1.1.2.tar.bz2 1,436,365
kdebase-1.1.2.tar.bz2 7,181,379
-------------------------------
                     11,342,981


So, on my modem anyway, the core of KDE 1.1.2 was an hour and a half to 
download. I didn't think twice about trying KDE.

qt-x11-free-3.0.0-beta5.tar.gz 13,698,726
kdelibs-2.2.1.tar.bz2           5,999,418
kdebase-2.2.1.tar.bz2          12,696,643
-----------------------------------------
                               32,394,787

On the other hand, using KDE 2.2.1 + Qt 3 as a projection of KDE 3, KDE 3 
would be a 4 hour download.  That's not an automatic decision.

Qt is out of our control, though if I can afford the bandwidth I'll make a 
micro-Qt (source without API docs, and development tools) download 
available when the time comes.

The other packages are within our control, though.  I'd ask that 
developers keep people with slow connectivity in mind for the next 
release, and consider making it a goal that kdelibs-3.0.tar.bz2 and 
kdebase-3.0.tar.bz2 be no larger than 2.2.1, and maybe even smaller.

Why is smaller good?  A smaller size for the core packages makes it more 
likely that a person will even try KDE.

Why do source package sizes matter?  Source packages are a place where 
people get their start in learning KDE development, accessable tarballs 
make development accessable.

Ideas for paring the size:

* Move english docs to the i18n package, just as all other docs are.  
Removing doc/ from kdebase reduced the archive by 15% in my test.

* Move code to other packages.  Most KWin and KStyles, KSysguard, 
nsplugins, and some of the ioslaves like audiocd are debatable as part of 
a base install.

thanks for reading,
-- 
Neil Stevens
neil@qualityassistant.com
"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill
him with a terrible resolve." - Yamamoto Isoroku

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