KDE 3.5.6 released w Kubuntu packages (hold up there!)

[Scott Mazur]

On Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:23:39 -0400, Derek Broughton wrote
> No, I mean that it used to be that the rpm-based distros all used rpmfind
> and tended to grab their rpms from anywhere, and the non-rpm, non-debian
> distros _always_ used to work from tarballs.  Now the rpm-based 
> distros are moving more and more towards apt, and even the big all-
> source distro, gentoo, has package management, and while I'm not 
> sure any significant distro still works from tarballs, every app 
> developer still produces them and almost all the users know what to 
> do with them.

Now that sounds like a boat load of crap that could only come from someone
who's never lived outside the debian world.

First of all it's never been true that rpm-based distros all used rpmfind. 
Rpmfind is a place of last resort to 'maybe' get an application that your
'rpm-based' distro never provided and there was no other way to get it.  If
you were lucky you might find an rpmfind version that was built specifically
for your distro, and even then installing could very well lead into a long
trip into dependency hell.

Second, rpm-based distros are not moving more and more towards apt.  In fact
the last (dated) news I recall on the rpm/apt war front is that rpm is winning
the battle.  There's no point arguing which package manager is better
(remember Beta vs VHS?), users simply don't care.  One format will float to
the top and the other will become a foot note in Linux history.  And it will
be decided by uninformed users who have no idea what the technical differences
are.

Third, the day 'most users' knew what to do with a tarball ended with the
first person who discovered Linux has come far enough along that you can
realistically ditch MS for it.  'Most Users' aren't developers and the number
of tarball ignorant users is growing exponentially.  To suggest most users
even know what a tarball is, let alone how to install one is nothing more than
arrogant denial of the changing world around us.

I like Kubuntu.  I think it's got alot of things going for it.  It's also got
some things I don't like, but then so did so does every other distro.  Time
will tell if it's got the stuff to hold in, but you can bet it will be a short
life if (k)ubuntu doesn't open it's eyes to user criticisms

(sorry for hijacking the thread...)


Scott

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