Don Head <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
[...]
> > That we'll never do. We already have tried, this leads
> > to too much problems because of incompat packages. Our
> > business is anyway not to fill up the hd by countless
> > things.
>
> It's really sad to hear this. Red Hat, SuSE, Slackware,
> TurboLinux, they all have "Everything" or "Almost
> Everything" options. I'm curious why it's such a big
> deal for Mandrake.
Have you tried that option?
I used redhat before working for mandrake. Once I tried all. The system
was completely fucked up.
Honestly I don't understand why "everything" would be so useful. When I
install a new system, I often do some "urpmi" (which is a really useful
tool) and voila...
> I've been using, promoting, and supporting Mandrake for
> a couple years now, and I don't like hearing things like
> this.
Well, we argue.
> I *LOVE* "Everything" installs. I never have to worry
> about keeping the CD-ROM handy. If for some strange
> reason I get the urge to use something new, it's already
> installed.
I understand the good points.
The main problem is that it would need special testing to have this
feature work flawlessly, and we believe it's long work (time of full
installs...) and dirty (make special cases to remove the package which
create most problems), and moreover we would need more attention from the
packagers. It's sad to say, but most packagers at mandrake don't care
about their packages. Even if I do more by myself, I can't do everything,
including my other duties!
> I also work for a company that does Linux training. We
> find that an "Everything" install is the best way to load
> the machines so that users can play around with them. It
> also gives the different instructors a lot of flexibility
> in the classroom. Up until this point, we've always used
> Red Hat (kickstart everything install). I finally got
> the go-ahead to put a Mandrake 7.2 auto_inst on the
> classroom setup instructions. I didn't put 8.0 because
> it's auto_inst is slightly broken (as reported by someone
> else earlier, I plan on using his workaround to try it
> out at some point). The sad part is that I'm going to
> have to list a huge amount of packages in order to get
> anywhere near an "Everything" install. I hope it all
> fits on the floppy disk.
Or use a postinstall script (in the auto_inst), or at first boot, that
will call "urpmi" with all the needed leaves...
> Please, someone, put an "Everything" install back in.
> Even if it's not quite everything (due to package
> conflicts or whatever), it'll still be better than trying
> rpm -Uvh * after the install.
I sure understand your way of thinking. But please consider my arguments.
We would need a "safe" and "working" Everything install, which is IMO hard
to achieve. Also, consider all the critics for open net ports, conflicting
packages that break many things, etc.
--
Guillaume Cottenceau
