Kamil Paral wrote:
I'll not talk about implementation, there are more suitable
people for
that here. But I'll voice my opinion that automatically retiring software
from Fedora users' computers is a sane and proper thing to do. If a
package is removed from Fedora, it should also be removed from users
computers (during FN+1 upgrade). Of course, we should allow users to keep
it, if they want it. But the default process should happen automatically,
and users should opt-out of automatic retiring, instead of opt-in. Only
this way we can build a secure and reliable operating system.
If only power users can opt-out from retiring a package (e.g. by editing
dnf.conf), I don't think that's a problem. Because even though general
users will of course be unhappy when an application they use get
permanently removed during system upgrade, they will be even more unhappy
when their system suddenly breaks in the future, either by unresolved
dependencies, or when the retired app/library causes the system to not
boot or breaks the desktop, because nobody at that points expects and
tests those software interactions. A general user can resolve a missing
app, but they can't resolve a broken OS. If they want to deviate from the
system we provide, it's reasonable to ask them to have certain technical
knowledge, instead of allowing them to shoot themselves in the foot (even
unknowingly, by not doing automatic retirement).
I cannot agree with these statements. I think removing working software from
users' systems is not something we should ever do. I see it as inherently
incompatible with our "Freedom" principle (what happened to Freedom 0, the
right to run the software?), and also with "Features" (as removing an
application obviously removes its features). And it surely will not make you
any "Friends" either.
Kevin Kofler