3rd party repositories vs the floppy disk

Jonas Karlsson jonas.karlsson at fxdev.com
Tue Jun 19 14:21:12 UTC 2007


Jeroen van Meeuwen wrote:
> How is that possible? I know there's easier things to do but this 
> isn't at all that difficult. In fact, it is properly documented as 
> well by the Fedora Unity project [1].
> And again, properly documented by the Fedora Unity project [1]. All 
> the software you ever wanted, in- or outside the Fedora Universe, 
> including directions on things to keep track of while you go and 
> install it the first time.
>
Thank you Fedora Unity for the work you are doing. I've read the Fedora 
Unity's guidelines. Remember I did use Fedora even before Unity existed 
so this problematics is not new news. But I think it is time to address 
them in public to get opinions. The Unity do describe the problematics 
and how to live with it, but that do not solve things at a higher level. 
The problems will still be there and we (the users) will need to work 
around them.

> In fact it is a 'problem' that should not exist at all. 3rd party 
> repositories should not need to exist for the distribution of 
> proprietary or patented (eg. non-free) software if only all software 
> was free. Fedora (or: Free Software) is exactly the solution to that 
> problem. Side-note: Of course 3rd party repositories can have a 
> different opinion on how stuff should be packaged or whether to allow 
> the most bleeding edge stuff, etc... They'd not become completely 
> obsolete in a free-software world.
>
This will sidetrack to much to go into but I agree.

> Obviously, you're not the first to mention this. Apparently less 
> obvious is that these guys do cooperate, and put aside some of their 
> opinions and principles in order to do so. In addition, they put in 
> extreme amounts of effort, too. Maybe even less obvious is that 
> although there are reasons to not merge all 3rd party repositories 
> together, they still make the effort. I mean they did initiate their 
> own repositories for a reason, rather then joining some existent 
> effort, right? Despite the history of things though (you could have 
> known all this), they still make the effort of merging repositories. 
> Not for their sake, but for yours.

> The problem is not that there is more then one add-on repository for 
> Fedora. The problem is not that some of those repositories or packages 
> within those repositories conflict with one another. The problem isn't 
> that there is non-free software either.
>
> You calling this a mess however, that is what I call a serious 
> problem. How dare you say anyone is doing users and the community any 
> harm? I certainly hope you didn't really mean it that way. If 
> anything, Fedora is about improving user experience with the Linux 
> operating system, as long as it is Free and Open Source Software. If 
> anything, we move forward on improving that very branch, too. There's 
> lots of people putting in lots of effort working on that set of 
> principles, for their own sake as well as yours. And because it's cool 
> and challenging.
>
Yes I did call it a mess, when the result might be to reinstall your 
machine. But I stand corrected and beg forgivness for saying the word 
harm in an uncareful way if you feel hurt by it. I did mean it in both 
ways. Looking at a very very large picture it actually makes confusion 
become harm. Looking at a smaller picture it is all good. Remember to 
get Linux on everyones desktop will require almost no confusion at all 
(just look at the confusion all the many different distros make(which to 
choose for the regular windows guy)). The persons behind the 3rd party 
repositories are doing a tremendous work and are a big part of the 
community, and I do thank them for the blood sweat and tears going into 
it. Why this question has even been risen is because this is now way 
past a small operation. There are millions of people using using these 
3rd party software repositories and when there are, I also think that it 
is fair to ask the questions I do ask, don't you?

//Jonas






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