The SORRY state of Linux Packaging, was: Part 2 of: printer moved to new location= CUPS cannot find its drivers anymore

[M. Fioretti]

(for those who missed the beginning, it's here

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2022-February/306834.html
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/2022-January/306752.html

On Tue, Feb 08, 2022 17:20:44 PM +0000, ubuntu at howorth.org.uk wrote:
> Marco Fioretti wrote:
> > (*) because for me (and more than a few others who said "me too" when
> > they read the post) every distro update means wasting the best part of
> > a week on this mess. But that is another story, for another day:
> > https://stop.zona-m.net/2022/01/the-sorry-sorry-state-of-linux-packaging/
> 
> https://openbuildservice.org/

Until I can upgrade the OS, my first/most urgent problem remains how
to make my printer work without power cycling it AND (I forgot) with
the same print quality it had when it was connected directly. In the
short term, I would really rather have feedback on that, in the
original thread.

This said, and since this is a very important theme for Linux in
general: answers like "openbuildservice" are useless/irrelevant for
END USERS. That page itself says so, albeit implicitly:

"For Users

"Your users can always download the latest version of your software as
binary packages for their operating system. They use the package
management tools they are familiar with and will get your software
just like they get software from their OS supplier."

See? "Your Users..", "THEY use the tools they are familiar with..."

THat project talks (rightly) to only developers who care about
Linux. Users of Linux should not even know, or need to know that it
exists. The only thing Linux users could do with it may be a petition
to the geniuses who created the mess described in my post, to ask that
they start using openbuildservice instead, using my post or their own
struggles as evidence.

To save everybody's time:

1) this is about USERS, i.e. people who need to just use Linux to do
complex stuff to pay the bills, but simply cannot hack it anymore,
regardless of how great/due/right it would be in principle, because
there are only 24 hours in a day. There are plenty of them, there
should be thousands times more, and that won't happen until the
problems in my post are solved, one way or the other.

2) Also, I have read with interest all the answers to this, with
fascinating insights on the history of computing, the nature of
technical debt etc.. but reading is all I could do.

In the next 1/2 weeks, I would like to make my printer work 100%, and
would like to discuss the specific issues mentioned in my post, and
could use that discussion to write a follow up. But in the short term
I would have no time for other discussions.  So please don't be
surprised or offended if you get no answer by me on any combination of
(1) and (2) above.

Thanks,
		Marco
-- 
Help me write my NEXT MILLION WORDS for digital awareness:
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