faq
flatforty
contribute
subscribe
configure
search
rdf
main
parent
thread
|
Re: how about making upgrades easier
by Aaron J. Seigo on Tuesday 10/Apr/2001, @22:25
|
Well, I obviously don't speak for the KDE developers, but here is my take on it....
The KDE developers are just that: developers. Their _self appointed_ (e.g. voluntary) task is to create this tremendous architecture which all of humanity is free to benefit from.
So, why don't they extend this just a bit further and provide actual binaries? Here are three reasons that I can think of:
1) TIME. They are already extraordinarily busy creating the technology. Would you prefer development slowed down significantly, or that people would do what they do not enjoy doing thereby stripping them of the joy they find in this pursuit (and increasing the odds that they will stop)?
2) EXPERTISE. The organizations behind each Linux distribution, BSD variant and commercial Unix all create their own environments. For the KDE developers to take on the task of supporting these operating systems with binaries is not only doing the job of these distributors, but means that the KDE people would have to work with all the iodiosyncracies of each OS. Every OS has its own way of doing things and therefore the different sets of packages will and do vary. Who knows the OS best and is therefore in the best position to create binary distributions for it? Why, the companies who make them in first place.
3) FAIRNESS. To officially provide binaries for any given OS, but not for others, would imply a favoritism that is not a part of the KDE project. Within KDE all *nix, *BSD and Linux systems are treated with interest (assuming that there are KDE'ers on that given system). The amount of work that goes into making sure KDE builds on a wide variety of platforms is very impressive. Therefore, if the KDE team themselves can not provide quality binaries for each and every supported system themselves, I think it is a good idea to treat all of them equally and request that either the OS manufacturers themselves or interested users create the binary packages.
Finally... remember. There is no body stopping you as a loyal user of your operating system from stepping up to the plate and creating wonderful binary distributions of KDE. In fact, this would probably be more than welcomed by your fellow users if your OS provider isn't doing their job well. This is how debian, HP/UX, Solaris and (to my knowledge) FreeBSD get their binaries: users stepping up to the challenge.
Around and within the KDE project there are programmers, artists, documenters, translators, testers..... and there are packagers. I think this only makes sense. I also think that with enough encouragement from that other group of KDE people, the USERS, the OS manufacturers can and will step up to the plate and offer quality KDE binary packages. Vote with your voice and with your dollars, and perhaps even some of your own energy. That is how this world of Open Source Software works.... |
|
|
![[KDE Dot News]](http://www.kde.org/dot/Images/kdedotnews.gif)
