rawhide report: 20050121 changes

[Rahul Sundaram]

On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:23:12 -0600, Josh Boyer
<jwboyer at jdub.homelinux.org> wrote:
> On Sat, 2005-01-22 at 21:28 +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> 
> Putting this back on the list because you make some good points and this
> is a good discussion.

Ok thanks

> If the Core install CDs give you an option to install from the Extras
> CDs at _install_ time, and you have the choice to not accept the
> default, then I could be OK with that.

I would very much want this to be supported in the installer. adding
repositories and selecting packages from the extras and alternatives
repo including the ability to install them from kickstart would
satisfy everyone I believe.

If anyone still has any other  problems with fedora core only /only/
the defaults I would like to hear about it


> 
> However, my main concern with moving KDE to Extras is not ISO
> organization.  It's more of a maintainership issue.

valid concern. I already answered this one too to a limited extend . 
here is a more detailed answer.

You might be well aware that kde-redhat.sf.net project has existed for
quite sometime and is maintained in a active manner. when fedora
extras policy for including packages, redhat or the other members in
the community can ask these people and other upstream  KDE developers
to engage themselves with Redhat. one of the previous concerns with
them was that Redhat was making modifications to KDE that was
crippling the user experience for KDE ( I am not making that
accusation. it just already exists). By moving these into extras and
actively inviting the community, it is likely that upstream KDE
developers and others would see this as an oppurtunity to build
packages and provide a better experience for KDE users on fedora.

one of the other benefits of having KDE and other such non default
packages  outside fedora core is that the amount of software a typical
end users installs on his/her system is reduced. ideally someone would
step up to make anaconda installer have a minimal setup too. in
essence this improves security and increases maintainability.

Fedora has a stated policy of staying close with upstream. so package
updates  dont just include security and bug fixes but also introduces
new features. a typical fedora user usually gigabytes of updates
because there is no easy way to stay conservative and ignore packages
containing new features. I also suggest this capability be introduced
in pup  and its command line variants too in FC4.


> Could you kindly point me to where the "defined goal of including only
> defaults" is stated?  I can't seem to find it anywhere. 

To be honest I did look for this in the website too but couldnt find
it. It seems to be more of a implicit policy from reading through the
previous discussions in this list.  feel free to correct me otherwise

-- 
Regards,
Rahul Sundaram