Re: source builds vs. RPMs

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Fri, Jun 04, 2010 at 11:05:56AM +0200, Bruno Haible wrote:
> Where does the thinking come from that "there must be only one instance
> of every package"? From Microsoft Windows?

I've hardly ever used MS Windows, but I do know they have no packaging
system to speak of and often install multiple, sometimes out of date
versions of libraries and so on.

My experience of the goodness of packaging systems comes from my use
of OSes like Minix and FreeBSD which don't have good (or any)
packaging systems, and require complete reinstallation after a short
period of time once the layers of cruft from multiple 'make install'
commands have built up.

> Where does the thinking come from that it is bad to have something not
> recognized by the package system?

The packaging system manages security updates, that's one very big
reason.

> This is important, because the GNU system is about bringing YOU, the user,
> the freedom to install anything you want, with any modifications that
> you want. If there are memes floating around that make it seem an
> unattainable or undesirable goal, we need to know about it.

Don't push this into a debate about Freedom.  Just because I can do
anything I want with my computer doesn't mean I don't appreciate
having (Free) tools to help manage it sanely.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat http://people.redhat.com/~rjones
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