Re: Bug#167921: ITP: httrack -- offline browser : copy websites toyour computer
>>"Steve" == Steve Langasek <vorlon@netexpress.net> writes:
Steve> On Sat, Nov 09, 2002 at 11:45:21AM -0500, David D.W. Downey wrote:
>> Why should it matter if another package provides the same services. maybe
>> people don't wnat to use that particular package?
>> If the guy wants to packge it up and maintian it, let him. Unless someone
>> can find a specific reason that that particular software package should not
>> be included (and just because another software package provides the same
>> functionality is *not* a good reason), ther eshould be no problem.
Steve> If "we've already got one of those" isn't enough reason to
Steve> object to packaging a piece of software, pray, what is?
I certainly do not think that is a good enough reason,
no. Please interject your own emacs vs vi flame here. (Like, we
already had an editor in ed).
Steve> Debian contains more software than any other operating system
Steve> I know of. This is good, in that it ensures the software you
Steve> need is always at your fingertips; but it's also bad, in that
Steve> it makes it more difficult to sort out what software is
Steve> actually *useful*, and what software we have packages for
Steve> because it seemed like a good idea at the time. We have a
Steve> certain responsibility to be *discriminating* in our
Steve> packaging, in order to create an operating system of quality,
Steve> not just of quantity.
quite. But merely because we already have one of those is not
enough, as you have already argued: the one we have may be inferior,
it may not be as flexible or scalable; the new package, though not as
functional may grow to be better by better intrinsic design.
Steve> The question "why do we need another one?" should always be
Steve> asked, and unless there are problems with the functionality
Steve> provided by the existing package, "I don't want to use that
Steve> one" is a piss-poor excuse for expanding the archive.
I strongly disagree. It is the best reason for expanding the
archive: at least oneperson has had an itch to scratch despite the
existence of a perfectly working alternative (for most people windows
works well enough, for the rest there are the bsd's, who the hell
needs Linux? And who the hell needs anything more than Red Hat and
Suse?).
Alternatives, parrallel paths for exploring solutions, lead to
innovation. Artificially limiting on the basis of seniority is the
piss poor mechanism.
manoj
--
WHENEVER ANYBODY SAYS he's struggling to become a human being I have
to laugh because the apes beat him to it by about a million years.
Struggle to become a parrot or something. Jack Handley, The New
Mexican, 1988.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> <http://www.debian.org/%7Esrivasta/>
1024R/C7261095 print CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
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