[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: A proposal to deal with the current RedHat situation
From:       Shawn Gordon <shawn () thekompany ! com>
Date:       2002-09-02 0:45:09
[Download RAW message or body]

At 03:22 PM 9/1/2002, Cornelius Schumacher wrote:
>On Sunday 01 September 2002 16:59, Shawn Gordon wrote:
> >
> > Since we have to package our software to work on various versions of
> > KDE and linux distros and versions, we built a system we call Jane
> > that has about 10 different distros on it, various versions of the
> > popular ones, we try to have the current release and 1 or 2 releases
> > back typically.  We have a very cool technology that we built that
> > will take a source tarball with the spec files for building in each
> > of those distros in it and go through and build them all
> > automatically, at the end you will get a set of rpms for each distro
> > for each thing you've built.  If someone is willing to create and
> > maintain those spec files for the various pieces that need to be
> > included for each distro/version, then we can use our build system
> > and technology to create packages for all the various distros that we
> > support.  This way KDE would make the packages, and not the distros.
> > So now when people complain that RedHat has a fubarred KDE we can
> > point them to the "official" KDE package (hosted by KDE).
>
>Does that mean you would provide a set of servers with remote access for
>packagers? How would the packages be tested? Is there some
>documentation about Jane available?

This is a general proposal, no one really needs to know about Jane 
specifically beyond how the spec files need to be set up.  I expect this 
process to get fine tuned a bit, but I'd also imagine that there are people 
using virtually every distro combination around and we can arrive at some 
formalized testing for the packages.  What I'd like to do is get a series 
of volunteers that will handle the spec files for each distro (all 
versions), so this would only take about a half dozen people, and not a 
whole lot of time since I believe spec files likely exist already.

To address Neils messages (I like to propose solutions to problems, not 
problems to solutions) we currently have RedHat, Suse, Mandrake, Slackware, 
Caldera and Debian on Jane (various versions of each), I've got a box of 
ELX and Lycoris sitting on my desk to install still.  Outside of adding 
Gentoo, I think we are probably covering about 95% of what people are 
using, and if something else comes up that really needs to be packaged, 
then it can be added until we run out of disk space and have to change the 
configuration.

As was also mentioned, it's source now, it will still be available as 
source in the future, what this does is make it a heck of a lot easier for 
people to get current, standardized, non-customized by distros, versions of 
KDE that have the KDE stamp of approval on them.

Sure we're a big evil company out to make profits on our hard work, but in 
this case I'm offering to help out with what I, and many others see as a 
glaring problem.  Maybe it isn't a problem for the purists, but it's a 
problem for the consumers.  My employees are probably going to kick my ass 
for volunteering for this :).


>--
>Cornelius Schumacher <schumacher@kde.org>


Regards,

Shawn Gordon
President
theKompany.com
www.thekompany.com
949-713-3276


 
>> Visit http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel#unsub to unsubscribe <<
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]