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Re: update in sid has killed gnome-terminal



Clive,

> Ouch !  Hi David

Yes; ouch indeed.

> I'm not any sort of geek, dumbass or otherwise.  The assumption is that
> if you're running "sid" then you are a geek (or very brave).  I run
> woody because it is stable (and OK the packages are a bit old) with
> KDE3.1.

I happen to be both. I've submitted bugs before, found solutions and
worked through most of the Debian problems too. I am actually reasonably
adept at making Debian packages but every now and then a problem occurs
that I flounder in and simply ask for help.

> The point about sid is that it is bleeding edge software and recommended
> mainly for those who know what they're doing.  I've not followed this
> thread, so I'm ignorant of what led you to this outburst.

Look, I knew *something* was wrong and I had my suspicions about
libbonobo-activation4 but not about fontconfig. I'm not entirely adept at
backtracking versions of packages (I always get the syntax wrong and I
need to read more of the documentation) and half my damn system crashed.

When you have half your system dead and you know the people you're asking
for help know how to fix it [I was being hideously sarcastic when I
labelled everyone dumbass geeks - geeks maybe, but dumb (i.e. stupid) no]
but they're not saying so.

> So I would suggest that you politely ask for help rather than venting
> your frustration on those who are volunteers.

Rather than being absolutely and totally unhelpful to people who are brave
enough to use Debian Sid--these guys and girls are the ones who will find
problems, discover bugs and fix the bugs if they have the expertise (but
finding them is very helpful too)--someone should write the "Debian
Unstable -- Howto Report Problems Howto".

/me sigh

Hah!

I could write the damn thing myself. A synopsis such as:

 * What is Debian Unstable?
 * What do you or don't you do if it breaks?
 * Here are some common problems...and what to do if they happen

...so that rather than saying, "Oh, you shouldn't be using Sid because
you're clueless" -- which isn't entirely true otherwise how did they work
out how to upgrade to Sid in the first place [D'oh] -- one can say: "Have
you looked at (some URL)?".

...off to the LDP methinks.


DSL

-- 
The Open Source Business Network in SA
 ...will be open soon! Watch this space.



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