KDE4.3 beta issues

[Mark Greenwood]

On Monday 25 May 2009 15:26:12 Terrell Prude' Jr. wrote:
> 
> Jussi Kekkonen wrote:
> > hi
> >
> >   
> >>> * The size: some packages actually weight double or sometimes much
> >>> more the size with the debugging symbols.
> >>>       
> >> Yes, and we can afford it.
> >>
> >>     
> >>> * The speed: debugging symbols are loaded in memory, which will have a
> >>> considerable effect on the PC speed if one has less than 1 GB of RAM
> >>> and opens many applications. Even with more RAM, try running an
> >>> application in gdb (the Gnu debugger) and you will see the drastic
> >>> speed drop you will experience.
> >>>       
> >> The users we're talking about aren't _ever_ going to use gdb.  If there are
> >> packages that seriously do have performance problems when the symbol tables
> >> are included, that's a valid reason for leaving them out of _specific_
> >> packages, but they should be included in most apps by default.
> >>
> >>     
> >
> > FYI there's still us who cannot afford it, really...
> >   
> 
> Huh?  Of course we can!  80GB hard disks have been with us for what, 
> nearly 8 years?  That's far, far more than enough room, by almost an 
> order of magnitude, even *with* debug symbols.  Without symbols, it's 
> just over an order of magnitude.  Kubuntu Jaunty takes up just under 4GB 
> (including /var) on my 40GB disk drive.

But the CD image is now 700MB. There's no room there for all that debug. We don't all have unlimited high-bandwidth broadband.

Frankly though, if the software wasn't so bleedin' broken we wouldn't be having this argument would we? ;) The argument should be for better beta testing instead of releasing beta code as "finished".

Mark

> 
> If someone really still has an ancient 10GB hard disk, then they need to 
> be using Fluxbox or IceWM or something small, not a full-featured 
> desktop environment like GNOME or KDE.  I would recommend Damn Small 
> Linux (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/) to these folks, not *ubuntu.  And 
> for those folks who have an otherwise modern-enough box (say, Athlon or 
> Pentium III @ 1.2GHz, 512MB DRAM) but keep that 1999-era 10GB hard disk, 
> then it's time to upgrade the hard disk.
> 
> So yes, Kubuntu's target audience can indeed afford it, and the debug 
> symbols should be included, especially at this point in KDE 4's dev cycle.
> 
> --TP
> 
>