Re: Useless packages (was Re: anarchism_7.7-1.deb)

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On Sat, Sep 25, 1999 at 02:51:36AM -0500, David Starner wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 25, 1999 at 07:28:57AM +0000, Lars Wirzenius wrote:
> > David Starner <dvdeug@x8b4e53cd.dhcp.okstate.edu>:
> > > Instead of each developer chose what packages are and aren't useful 
> > > to them, why don't we look at the popularity contest? A simple, bias-free
> > > way of seperating programs on to the CD's, by actual use. That is what
> > > it was made for. 
> > 
> > http://www.debian.org/~apenwarr/popcon/ says
> > 
> > 	*** THIS IS EXPERIMENTAL!! *** Try not to get upset if the
> > 	results are incorrect, but be sure to e-mail me if you think
> > 	there's something funny going on.
> > 
> > I wouldn't base decisions on it yet.

i wouldn't base any decisions on it ever.  that's not it's purpose.

> 
> Is there any reason to think it's not correct? 

more to the point, is there any reason to think that it matters whether
it is correct or not? the popularity contest is for informational
(entertainment) purposes only, not for decision making.

the usefulness of a package has nothing at all to do with it's
popularity - it may be "unpopular" because it is an obscure and
specialised tool but to those who know and need it, it is essential.

the survey was never intended to be a means of deciding whether packages
are useful or not. nor was it intended for deciding whether to include a
package in debian or not. at most, it is a tool for *helping* to order
packages on a CD (and even that is of limited use because it mostly
shows the popularity of old packages in the last release but not new
ones in the current unstable).


craig

--
craig sanders