Shrinking/splitting up core Was: Why are there only i686 and i586 Version of glibc...

[Tom Diehl]

On Sun, 6 Jun 2004, Crutcher Dunnavant wrote:

> I think that perhaps, "Core" and "Extras" is insufficiently fine
> grained. There is value in a truly small distro, one small enough
> that, while it contains everything needed to run itself, it does not
> contain the tools needed to build itself. Think PVRs, Routers,
> MyRoboticDog, etc.
> 
> Since these packages are to be built in a common space, it's really
> just an issue of which repository the RPMS get dropped into after they
> are built. I'd rather see something like, in staggered order of
> dependancy:
> 
> Core - (no, really, CORE. No X, no gcc, just the hard base.)
> Desktop
> Development
> Multimedia
> Extras

I really like this idea, but wouldn't it be a maintenance nightmare?

What I am thinking about specifically is how do you handle the stuff that
fits into more than 1 category? Is that automatically part of core?
Do you suggest that anaconda only know how to install core and everything
else is done post install? I am sure there are other cases to be thought
about. Wouldn't all of the categories need to be tested together to ensure
compatibility? This subject comes up again and again but seems to be about
as far as it goes. Then again once the Red Hat/Fedora infrastructure to
allow external contribution's is finally up and running things might
progress.

Tom