Re: [Evolution] downloads page

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam whitemice org>]

On Tue, 2013-08-27 at 14:52 +0200, Peter von Kaehne wrote:
> > Von: "Alberto Ruiz" <aruiz redhat com>
> > In the meantime, even if less than ideal, we have to cope with the fact
> > that it's distros who distribute Evolution.
> That actually _is_ the ideal way.
> Someone writes a nice programme. Someone else packages it for their
> distribution A and again somebody else for distribution B.
> Instead of running around the internet and chasing multiple download
> pages you do a simple central update with the for your distribution
> typical tools to get a new version.

+1 +1 +1.  I cannot imagine any reason at all someone would want to 'go
back' to the old way of download-and-install, uh oh, it is broken, it
needs that other...

There simply is no problem here to solve.

> Occasionally a distribution will hang behind,

Yes, that is to be expected.  It is a problem when they hang WAY WAY
behind, or when they do not provide an avenue for user's who desire more
current [at greater risk] versions.  But all the mainstream ones do...
so no problem, again.

>  occasionally a distribution will 
> ignore a new release and very occasionally a distribution will make a conscious 
> choice of not implementing an update. A user can then either choose to
> live with these facts, change distribution or (if they are technically
> able) create their own updated version from sources.

I'd disagree, a *user* cannot "create their own updated version from
sources".  A user does not build software; developers do.  If you are
compiling stuff - you are a developer, albeit possibly a very bad one.

> My current main laptop has 2500 programme packages installed. I would
> think this is fairly norm. For the vast majority (2498 packages to be
> exact) I am not in the slightest interested to have the most bang up
> to date version. For the two remaining ones - I am a contributing
> developer, so I compile them from source.

... so you are a developer.  The constant swapping of contexts between
user and developer is in part what makes this thread senseless.  It is
moving the mileposts while measuring.

If you build software you are a developer;  do not confuse yourself with
a user [who has neither the interest nor skills to do such a thing].
For a non-trivial application such as Evolution a non-trivial skill set
is required to build.

> Unless you produce something very special or something in closed
> source, you would be a fool to replicate half heartedly and half
> arsedly the often considerably well thought through infrastructure of
> a major distribution.

Yep.

> And unless you are desperately waiting for a brand new feature/bug fix 
> from a specific package there is no reason whatsoever not to wait for your
> own distribution to update itself. Which it will do at some point. 
> Painlessly and unnoticably, usually.

Yep.

-- 
Adam Tauno Williams <mailto:awilliam whitemice org> GPG D95ED383
Systems Administrator, Python Developer, LPI / NCLA