Need advice pertaining to GSoC proposal

[Patrick W. Barnes]

On Saturday 04 April 2009 02:35:34 Debayan Banerjee wrote:
>
> Ok. My only aim was to make package installations an easier task. I am
> no Fedora ambassador but I do try a lot to spread Fedora in my
> locality. Recently we had a training program where we were teaching
> school teachers how to use openoffice on Linux. When they ask how they
> are supposed to install packages I shudder to explain to them Fedora's
> process. They just wont follow all that. So we have to go to openSuSE
> 1 click install etc.
> Anyways, lets rephrase the problem.
> Lets assume 3rd party repositories are evil all the time and not worth
> anyone's trust. Lets only concentrate on official repositories and
> official packages. What if we create an application (gui) which allows
> you to drag a package to it and it goes ahead and downloads all the
> dependencies and creates a repo alongwith a nice little .catalog file.
<snip>

Can you provide a usage case for this that is not covered by the features 
already provided with Fedora media, the Fedora repositories and PackageKit?

If you have Fedora media, then there is no real need to prepare additional 
media to deliver packages.  If you have access to the media or the 
repositories, then the PackageKit-powered tools will allow you to easily 
select and install any of the packages that the Fedora Project has to offer.  
Finally, if there is a need to distribute media with fresh packages for a 
Fedora install, PackageKit's Service Pack Creator will let you do that.  There 
is even a PackageKit browser plugin so that a web page can let you kick off the 
installation of packages from the configured repositories.  I certainly believe 
the PackageKit tools can use improvement, but we do not need to reinvent 
anything they already provide.

I would consider your idea of providing a CD with icons to kick off 
installations of specific packages to be a special use case and not something 
we would really want to encourage.  The package management GUIs are just as 
easy to use and do not create the trust issue for a user being handed a disc, 
but for such a disc, you could easily use scripts that launch tools we already 
have.  Consider creating shell scripts containing lines like the following:

dbus-send --dest=org.freedesktop.PackageKit \
 /org/freedesktop/PackageKit \
 org.freedesktop.PackageKit.InstallPackageName \
 uint32:0 uint32:0 string:rhythmbox

Of course, the scripts could be made complex enough to check if the package is 
already installed, if it is being run on a Fedora system, if PackageKit is 
running, etc.

-- 
Patrick "The N-Man" Barnes
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