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Re: Why is help so hard to find?



On Fri January 14 2011 22:06:21 Christian PERRIER wrote:
> You're right. No Debian developer is involved in large institutions or
> corporations where hundreds of such servers are in use. All Debian
> developers are kids playing on their parents' computer to build a
> distro, during hacking nights, instead of doing their home work and
> learn at school.

You're mistaken Christian.  Most Debian developers are dedicated
individuals who work hard to provide an excellent and stable
distribution.

But there are indeed a few who abuse the Debian packaging system
in order to force their unwanted software on the world.  I know
of two current examples - insserv and KDE 4.

It is perfectly OK for people to package those softwares and to
maintain them if they wish.

And it is perfectly OK for people to choose to use softwares which
have been packaged by Debian developers.

It is not OK for people to use packaging tricks to force their
softwares on people who don't want them.

insserv breaks complex systems.  It throws away years of DD work
and substitutes a few inane and inadequate rules.  It does so
without adequate warning, and irreversibly.  And the overrides
are undocumented - tell me which locations are for Debian packaging
and which are for sysadmins in order to avoid conflicts?  You can't
because there is no policy.  insserv would be laughable if it were
not infecting Debian right now.  Compared to the rest of the Debian
core, insserv is Windows 1.0.  It is so awful, in fact, that everyone
knows that it will have to be replaced.  But not until Squeeze+1.

FOR A SERVER, ANY SERVER, WHICH MIGHT BE BOOTED ONCE A YEAR OR SO,
THE RISK OF DOWNTIME DUE TO INSSERV LOSSAGE VASTLY OUTWEIGHS ANY
POSSIBLE SAVINGS IN BOOT TIME.  INSSERV SHOULD BE STRONGLY
DEPRECATED, NOT RECOMMENDED, FOR SERVERS AND COMPLEX WORKSTATIONS.

And KDE 4 is a well known and very old and very stale joke.  Fun
at parties, maybe, but not really appropriate for the workplace.

Some people like these softwares.  Use them if you wish.  HONESTLY
encourage people to use them if you wish.

But don't force them on people.  Don't trick people into using them
by saying they're recommended when they can in fact be disastrous.
The mere fact that they have to be forced on people shows just how
awful they are.

--Mike Bird


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