I would like to say a couple of things, I am just seeing this for the first time. I do understand now the reason that these packages were activated, and I do appreciate the work that Branden and others do/have done for Debian. I am sorry if I offended any developers as my comment was pretty harsh.
I also have some comments about the upgrade, development in general, etc. which I will insert in context below. >On Sun, Mar 14, 1999 at 07:32:59PM -0800, George Bonser wrote: > Well, maybe I should READ those package descriptions :) I *did* read the description in question. >I should make this the offical motto of the Debian X packages >I don't know how I am supposed to "support" XFree86 if people won't read: >1) the Debian release notes >2) the Debian package descriptions >3) anything in /usr/doc/* with the string "README" in the filename >4) anything in /usr/doc/* with the string "FAQ" in the filename >5) a prompt in the xbase postinst that says: I honestly feel that this is a bit much to ask of someone who is installing or especially upgrading software. If people read all of these documents they wouldnt have time for anything else especially considering that x is only one part of the whole distribution. That is why people use distributions- so that they won't have to read every document about every package in the distribution. I believe that the job of developers is to make installation and maintainance easy. I upgraded to stay up to date, install a couple of new packages and be able to install new packages in the future without hassles. I did read a lot of the great x reorganization but I just don't have all the time in the world. Also, I uninstalled xbase as soon as my upgrade was done. However I don't remember anything telling me to uninstall the two packages xdm and xfs, although I did remember something about them in the great x revolution. >The xbase package is obsolete and may be removed (with "dpkg --remove xbase"). >If you are upgrading from Debian 2.0 or earlier, you should read the >usr/doc/xbase/README.Debian file. Read this file now? (y/n) [y] Did that. >There is NO WAY this message did not appear at the time the xbase package >was upgraded. >I sometimes wonder why I bother writing any documentation at all. People >will just ignore it and then chime in with profound insights like Your documentation is fine. Keep up the good job. >"THIS----------------------------------SUCKS!!!!!!!!" >when anything changes. I don't say that everytime that something changes. This was a big system change that could have been avoided. To be specific, you could have written into the install script something that asked the user if they wanted x to run at bootup and also mention that getting a console will be undoable, or a real hassle anyway. I got rid of the problem in short order. I read about linux all the time, I am no expert but know more than the average linux user I have met- I'm not trying to brag, I'm just saying that I really work at it and I feel I do pretty good. I read but aren't we trying to make linux usable by a broader spectrum of user? >I have tried very hard to get the Debian XFree86 packages into a state >where they reliably meet two goals: > 1) they help out the user who doesn't know X inside and out > 2) they stay out of the way of the user who knows exactly what he's doing I don't mean to slam your work Branden, I think its great. Please just take this as a suggestion and a lesson in development. Being a good developer is a hard job, it requires a lot of insight into not only users needs but thier limitations. If I had not read the great x reoganization (and I imagine that a great many upgraders didn't) I would have had a much harder time of it. Please don't slam people for not reading everything. That is why you are needed- because they don't have time, or maybe they just aren't capable of understanding everything- again, that is why you are needed. >Needless to say, they are far from perfect in achieving these ends, but if >you have an argument that the X packages as they were a year ago when I >took over maintainership were better at doing the above than they are now, >I'd like to hear it. I like the new organization, I switched from Red Hat just because of the additional level of control in debian- just because I was bummed about one thing doesn't mean that *I* don't like the new organization. Thanks for the great system, I'm sorry I offended you. Please consider what I said about avoiding this sort of thing and when that approach might be called for. Bill Lacy >-- >G. Branden Robinson | >Debian GNU/Linux | If encryption is outlawed, only outlaws >[EMAIL PROTECTED] | will @goH7OjBd7*dnfk=<q4fDj]Kz?. >cartoon.ecn.purdue.edu/~branden/ | >PGP signature
