> > Yes. Many have raised the issue of conflicts on install. The answer at > > this > > point is to run configure over and over. Each time it will install > > something > > that is needed to settle the conflicts. The problem is that the selected > > files aren't in dependant order. Hopefully the new project will address > > this > > problem. > > Note that RedHat gets this right, at least on the initial install. They > prompt for groups of programs that generally would be chosen together > and hide the ugly details unless you ask to pick individual items. > It may be nice to individually pick every file on a unix distribution > but most people have better things to do. These days you probably > can't buy a disk that is too small to hold a fairly complete > installation.
I don't know. I was quite thrilled when I found that debian was giving me the option to know more or less exactly what was going on my system. I used to run slackware and when I would do a find I would get 16000 + files. I had no clue what most of the stuff on my system did. Granted, I ended up in more or less the same situation since I can't resist those sexy little program descriptions Debian gives you, but it was still very fun and informative. I was of course less thrilled by the problems mentioned above, especially the confusing way the dependencies are presented. I still am not exactly clear in my mind how that all worked and why I had to overide some simple stuff to make other common things work. Nevertheless I think individual package selectin on install is something we should keep, at least as a perfectly accesable option. I would like to see the energy go into that rather than a more general packaging scheme. I think more new users like it than you think.