Please remove Software Sources from the menus, it's destructive.

[Tony Yarusso]

On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 3:57 PM, Karel Prikkebeen <kabeen at home.nl> wrote:

>
>
> Op zaterdag 23-02-2008 om 10:40 uur [tijdzone +0100], schreef Jo-Erlend
> Schinstad:
>
> We now have four ways of adding a repository; add it as a line in/etc/apt/sources.list, as a file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d, usingSoftware Sources in the System > Administration menu, or in Synaptic.This only serves to confuse users. It is redundant and should beavoided.
> There are also negative consequences of having it in the menus. Byeliminating the need to open Synaptic, we're also eliminating the needto get to know Synaptic. That's a shame, because it's a really goodpackage management application. Synaptic has the features of Taskselbuilt into it, for instance, and many people don't know that becausethey don't know Synaptic. Because people don't know it very well, theyrecommend that people open a terminal and run sudo tasksel for tasksand sudo apt-get install for packages. This in turn leads to guidesthat recommend copy-paste of sudo commands. This may lead to securityissues for less advanced users who just want to install some software.They're being conditioned to use sudo carelessly, and to copy commandsthey don't understand and run them as root. This is a disease which weshould fight with all possible means.
> Removing the Software Sources menu item, thereby forcing users to openSynaptic instead, is only a beginning. All wiki pages and helpdocuments should also refer to Synaptic as the primary way ofinstalling tasks and packages, and Add/Remove for desktopapplications. Synaptic also lacks the possibility to enter a number ofpackages at the same time and install them, like you can do withapt-get and aptitude. I've filed a bug on that on launchpad:https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/synaptic/+bug/194666
>
> Best regards,
> Jo-Erlend Schinstad
>
>
> I agree with you. I should also like a standard button for Synaptic next
> to the help button, so that when you hoover over it with the mouse it gives
> a hint about it's purpose.
>
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>
>
I appreciate having the option there, since I don't actually use Synaptic,
but like having a handy way to edit the sources list.  Going through
Synaptic just takes more clicks...

-- 
Tony Yarusso
http://tonyyarusso.com/
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