What would it take to make Software Collections work in Fedora?

[Jon Masters]

On 12/06/2012 10:38 AM, Michael Scherer wrote:

> People are annoyed to go to different bugzilla to report bugs, people
> are annoyed to go to different shops to shop for stuff ( as seen by the
> success of amazon, or even itunes, etc ), so why would it make sense to
> have a different way depending on what you want to install ?

If I may, that comparison is flawed. When I shop at Amazon, I can buy
the same product that I can buy at a "big box" store, or a smaller
retailer. I'm enjoying the convenience of going to the App Store
(Amazon) but I can also install the software myself (go to the local
retailer), and it's all the same bits either way. It's not welded shut.
Although the retailers want to screw each other out of business,
competition laws require them to generally conform to the notion that I
can get my bits wherever I want and install them into my home, etc.

My biggest problem with the "one true repo" approach is that it creates
this (flawed) notion that software is either right or wrong: it's either
completely Open Source and shipped in the distro, or it's out there on
an island. I like Open Source, I like some proprietary software too. I
like some software from folks who don't care about packaging it for
distros. I like some commercial software. I want my Operating System to
provide a (small) stable platform that people can target. Then, by all
means do an Amazon. But much as I like Apple, don't do an Apple (iOS)
App Store where that's the only way to get bits, do it like they do on
the desktop where there's still choice.

Jon.