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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: KDE 2.2 tagged
From:       Roberto Teixeira <maragato () kde ! org>
Date:       2001-08-07 20:12:38
[Download RAW message or body]

Em Ter 07 Ago 2001 16:41, Andreas Pour escreveu:
> Waldo Bastian wrote:
> > On Tuesday 07 August 2001 11:57 am, Andreas Pour wrote:
> > > This raises the bigger point:  why package all kinds of programs that
> > > have a small user base into a core package?
> >
> > We have no core packages. All the packages released by the KDE project
> > are created equal and are packaged in a way that is convenient for _us_.
> > The size of the user base of an application is not a criteria for
> > inclusion in KDE.
>
> The KDE packages are the core packages.  So this excludes third-party
> packages.  For example, KDevelop used to be a third-party app, now it is
> a core app.
>
> > > At least if this is done shouldn't there be an easy way for packagers
> > > to split them into individual files?
> >
> > There is, see kdesdk, some distributions actually do that.
>
> Yes, but a lot of users already complain about not having good control
> over what packages are installed.  If you package app K1 with app K2,
> users are forced to install K2 to use K1.  What is the point of that?
>
> The basic KDE packaging policy -- kdeutils, kdenetwork -- already
> largely defeats the purpose of package management tools by forcing
> people to install stuff they don't want, but at least those packages
> have a theme and (in general) are of general use.  Putting together a
> package of completely unrelated programs, each of which has a small
> group of people who are interested (I would e.g. never use a cookbook
> program b/c I don't use recipes for cooking) that people are forced to
> install all at once or not at all is, well, nonsense, and goes against
> the KDE slogan of "Conquer Your Desktop" since users lose the ability to
> even control what programs exist on their system.  You might say, who
> cares if there is an extra program there, but a lot of people do care,
> and if nothing else it clutters up the menus.
>
> So, the questions is, why put all these things together in one package
> when they are unrelated and it's very unlikely any user will like the
> "all or none" option?  What is to be gained, in your opinion?
>

This situation gets even worse when a user has to update his system via a 
slow network connection with, say, apt-get or some other similar tool.

At Conectiva we solved this "problem" by separating every app into its own 
RPM package (kdeutils-ark, kde-i18n-pt_BR, etc...). This makes it possible 
for a user to install a basic KDE desktop installation with only the apps 
he/she wants to use. That was a simple yet very useful enhancement.

Perhaps something like this could be done with the current KDE tarballs?

regards,

	Roberto.
 
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