21 Apr
2006
21 Apr
'06
6:56 a.m.
On Thu, Apr 20, 2006 at 09:45:28AM -0400, Paul Davis wrote:
[...]
i heard an interesting comment from mike shaver of the firefox/mozilla
project last year. he wondered openly why on earth they (mozilla.org)
would actually want their software distributed by third parties. third
parties who compile and package in ways beyond their control.
this assumption that inclusion in a distro is the only way to get
software to linux users needs careful examination.
Seen from the perspective of a user, there are very good reasons to get
your software with the distro:
* It is far more convenient. You do not have to go elsewhere to find
your software, everything is just an apt-get (or similar) away.
* You are sure that the software fits in with the rest of the system
(dependencies, versions, ...)
* Distribution packages are in general more trustworthy than 3rd party
packages
* You are certain that the software may be installed (and deinstalled)
with your usual package management system.
The main drawback is that distributions often are somewhat delayed, one
does not get the very freshest software. On the other hand, the most
recent version of something often requires recent versions of other
software, and there you go again, hunting packages from all over,
having to compile yourself, spending time and getting problems.
Asbjørn