slocate (not in default SUSE install)

[Sitsofe Wheeler]

On Mon, 2008-02-11 at 11:15 +0000, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> Should we still ship slocate on desktops?

Just for a reference point SUSE have not installed locate on their
systems from at least SUSE 10.1 (and again it is not installed by
default on SLES 10). I believe the rationale for this is the IO grinding
it causes coupled with the effect of completely flushing the filesystem
cache which leads to daily sluggishness until the crawl finishes/the
cache is refilled. They may also feel that beagle does this job (since
it can index system files too).

If you are going to follow this lead be careful about leaving the tool
on there disabled because it will throw people and make them think "oh
it's there, I don't need to do anything". Given Ubuntu's habit of
telling you where to find packages for commands not installing it seems
preferable over disabling it.

Obviously removing it by default will upset people who have become
accustomed to it being there so this is nothing more than a data point.

-- 
Sitsofe | http://sucs.org/~sits/