On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 9:07 PM, Sriram Narayanan <[email protected]> wrote: > I want to propose that we move to rpm5 to give the user the > following usage experience: > > - easy to use smart package manager (using yum and rpm is > optional) > > - the familiar rpm format for the actual package files > > - support from the rpm5 and the smart package manager > community > > Reasons for rpm5: > > - based wide spread use on desktop as well as server grade > Linux based distros such as RHEL, rpm works well and meets > our needs of a good modern package system > > - I have managed to build rpm5 and have requested Jeff > Johnson, the present rpm5 maintainer and developer, to > integrate two fixes needed to build rpm5 on the opensolaris > platform > > - the current maintainers of rpm5 have given us a go ahead > on bundling rpm5 with Belenix [1] > > - rpm5 is actively maintained [2] > > - it uses modern compression systems and libraries [3] > > - it is used by other distributions as well, who don't mind > sharing their learning with us [4] >
I really do not know, if you really need a "binary package" based approach. The issue is the variability of hardware use here. I have nothing against "rpm" or "dpkg" based approach, but then, at the end of the day, Belenix would become "Yet Another Distro" ! Since the userland s/w is same for all *nix based OSs, nobody would appreciate the difference. I found nothing wrong with the "specs" based system which Moinak had used for the initial belenix development. This can be easily extended to a source based distribution system. My preference would always be for a source based technology, rather than pre-compiled binary downloads. Anything compiled on your box always works ! Please study the *BSD ports systems. it would be the easiest to implement on existing "specs" platform. It would also reduce server requirements for storing various versions of binaries. For those, who have not used FreeBSD/ OpenBSD etc, "port" is a technology used to install from source. Each Port is a collection of scripts that when executed, automatically download source of softwares from the Internet, patches, configures if necessary, compiles and install it. Any dependencies on other applications or libraries a port may have are also installed for the user. Like binary packages and ports understand dependencies. Suppose you want to install an application that depends on a specific library being installed, the ports system automatically installs the library first. Each port, or software package, is maintained by a “port maintainer”, an individual who is responsible for staying current with the latest software developments. Anyone is welcome to become a port maintainer by contributing their favourite piece of software to the collection. One may also choose to adopt and maintain an existing port that has no maintainer-ship. This brings in better contribution and participation from the community. You would notice, binary "packages" are invariably the handiwork of a core group, thus creating an artificial divisions of "developers" and "users". Having things this way, would reduce the work of the core group at developing a base install with minimal X with a full gcc based development environment and networking support. The "base" distro would be smaller, and "meaner", but more solid. Now that Oracle has pulled the plug on OpenSolaris, a larger community support is needed if any fork of the old OpenSolaris base is to continue. Just another view, Bish _______________________________________________ belenix-discuss mailing list http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/belenix-discuss http://groups.google.com/group/belenix-discuss
