Fedora/RH policies sometimes suck

[Robin Laing]

Ed Greshko wrote:
> Res wrote:
> 
>> We might as well go back to useing something like abiword by default :P
>> (but thats prolly mutilated as well)
> 
> Conspiracy theorists *unite*, you have a leader.
> 
> A thread gets started due to a feature(s) being removed in one application
> due to legal issues and suddenly *all* applications have been "crippled" and
> "mutilated".
> 
> Of course, nobody mentions what Red Hat does on the Enterprise Level in that
> they backstitch features and fixes from later versions of the kernel into
> their released versions.  They also contribute in other areas on other projects.
> 
> All that happens, from a select few, is that they get criticized for
> dropping features and/or applications that may result in their facing legal
> action.  Could it be that some folks want them to leave those in so they can
> find themselves fighting legal battles and forced into bankruptcy?
> 

In the past I have seen discussions about other repo's that don't 
compile an application to use all the features provided being slammed. 
Mplayer is one application that comes to mind.

I use OOo daily and until last week I found it very slow.  When I 
installed OOo 2.2 it was so much faster.  There are way to many 
variables to say it is because of something missing due to Fedora 
developers or just major improvements to the 2.2 code that will show up 
in the official FC release.

I will repeat myself when I say that getting support for a product can 
be difficult if a feature is removed from the bistro but there is no 
documentation indicating this available.  You go to the software site 
and their support tells you to do one thing but you find that you cannot 
because that feature or tool has been removed.

Due to this thread I am going to have to check a couple of other 
programs that I use daily to see what features are missing that could 
improve my productivity or features.

If the developers don't want to supply a list of changes from the 
original, then users may have to submit bug reports for all those 
missing features.

I understand the legal issues that RedHat has to deal with and as an end 
user, it is better, at least to a point.  On the other hand, it would be 
nice if there was an indication that package X is missing feature Y from 
the developers version.  I am not a developer but I wonder how hard it 
would be to do a diff from the two different sources to find what is 
changed and post that information, even in a raw format.

I guess it is time to learn how to make my own packages to get around 
these hurdles.

But as suggested, this is a good topic for the development list.
-- 
Due to the move to M$ Exchange Server,
    anything that is a priority, please phone.
Robin Laing