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Re: apt-get install sysvinit-core removes gnome?



On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 01:34:13PM +0200, Holger Levsen wrote:
> cc:ing the apt maintainers to get their opinion on making this the default...

[Disclaimer: I have written the APT part of it. I might be biased.]

Hell no – as this isn't the point of the implementation. It is intended
to help researchers and developers alike to experiment with resolvers in
"normal" situations rather than fabricated snapshots as you can't jump
to conclusion about the "greatness" of a resolver based on one single
test – and experimentation is basically the opposite of what you would
want the default resolver be:
The multiple levels of indirection in the design are e.g. great for
playing, but horrible from a speed point of view. It would also move
a lot of stuff onto every debian system… I guess I don't have to tell
you what it means to pull in prio:extra packages from a build-essential
prio:important (and for all practical proposes nearly essential:yes)
package.

It's also not complete yet. The CUDF protocol for example learned very
recently what MutliArch is and how to not explode if its encountered,
I wouldn't exactly call this path exceptional well tested as a result.
[Disclaimer: I have written MultiArch in APT as well, so I flipped
between both for quiet a while… not fun, so biased again].

It isn't even clear yet which technique is strictly superior to what we
have at the moment as our naturally grown heuristic-solvers do pretty
well in real world scenarios. If you don't trust me on that:
http://mancoosi.org/~abate/package-managers-comparison-take-2 which
talks about http://www.mancoosi.org/measures/packagemanagers/2012/
[Disclaimer: I have written a lengthy comment there which should give
you a hint why I come to this conclusion … bias the third]

(And yes, while I consider it a bug that apt isn't able to figure this
one out without a little help, I don't really consider this case
an important realworld scenario. In the end, the times I will change
init systems is hopefully far below the GR proposal count for that.
Not only because I am lazy, but because it would mean that everyone
would have done a pretty crappy job making Debian jessie the best release
ever if no init works reliably [totally unbiased on this one] )


Best regards

David Kalnischkies

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