On Tue, Apr 07, 2020 at 11:19:27AM +0300, Andrei POPESCU wrote: > On Lu, 06 apr 20, 22:49:13, Alex Mestiashvili wrote: > > > > R packages and python modules as everything else packageable for Debian > > comes as source code, so how it is build is up to you and tools you use. > > Even more, binary packages might be suboptimal compared to locally built > > ones. > > In most cases any optimization gains are offset by the maintenance > burden, e.g. you have to keep track of security updates, rebuild the > package, etc.
Exactly. There are those packages I care deeply about, so much so that I follow development news. Those I compile off-repository, usually at the bleeding edge; I keep whatever build infrastructure it takes well oiled (because I do that often). But I can't "care deeply" about each of the ~2k packages delving in my box. I wouldn't have the bandwidth for that. Thus, there's that other 99.95% (yeah, this statistic is probably made up) infrastructure, which I know very little about, and which Just Works (TM) thanks to the dedication of Debian packagers. They do an outstanding job, and I'm infinitely thankful to them. Thing is, "those packages you care deeply about" are different ones from person to person. To me, it's Emacs and Guile, to you it's Apache or LibreOffice or Lua and Enigma. The cool thing about a distribution like Debian is that it sets a baseline of "reasonable" versions, offering a path to deliver the achievement of specialists to all the others. It's the glue holding together all those brilliant gems into a coherent whole. Smaug, if you like :) For that, I say "THANK YOU" to all those maintainers. Cheers -- tomás
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