sorry, frank...I really disagree with you, big time.
the packages are a wonderful bundle of joy to me,
those I don't use, I delete. If it is used by something
else, it tells you. If you aren't sure, you leave it alone
till you do. There have been many times when I found
some interesting tidbit on the web, some cool program,
and when I looked, and I do look, many times it is installed
and all I need to do is query it to find the executable and
create a desktop.lnk and go.
Just a newbie's opinion,
Bambi
frank wrote:
> i share your concern over the number of packages
> that seem to never be used...linux grew as an OS
> for programmers, system administrators, etc., and
> the major distributions include masses of "stuff"
> that holds no interest for those of us who do not
> live lives focused on our monitors...browsing
> through the package manager (a quicker tour, than
> rpm commands at the console) reminds one of the
> apartments of older women who've never learned to
> discard what is not in use...knick-knacks
> and mementos everywhere, all of great import to
> the occupant, but of little use or interest to
> others...does one really need a half dozen tea
> sets sitting on various end tables, or a dozen
> different mail clients...
>
> but what to discard??...i, too, would like to
> trim the size of my mandrake system, but am
> often unsure of which packages are essential to
> its operation...a web site that detailed each
> package would help...even better would be a
> program within mandrake, where i could sort
> through a detailed list of all packages, have all
> dependency problems automatically resolved, and
> then delete in mass all those i found
> un-needed....i'd prefer being able to do such a
> mass deletion after mandrake is up and running,
> as that would allow browsing the programs, rather
> than depending on the name and short description
> given at installation time...ideally, i'd be able
> to save "my list" of packages to floppy, and use
> it at installation time if i re-install the whole
> system on this or another computer...
>
> perhaps this is all possible now...perhaps some
> package in mandrake accomplishes just what i've
> suggested...if so, i'd like to be pointed toward
> it...
>
> frank
>
> On Tue, 13 Jun 2000, you wrote:
> > Hi,All
> >
> > I have a question on packages that are on Linux. Is there a web site that
> > gives details of what the package is and etc?? I would like to be able to
> > know what to install and what I don't need. I think I am wasting space by
> > taking everything that is offered in the install.
> > This way I will know what is what as to everyday use of Linux.
> >
> > Thanks
> > Robert F. Trettel
> --
