Re: Yet another newbie

[Dave Reed <dreed capital edu>]

> From: Pedro Corte-Real <lreal@fe.up.pt>
> Cc: bob@kehs.ksd.org, gnome-list@gnome.org
> 
> On Dom, 07 Fev 1999 03:34:45 Dave Reed wrote:
> > > From: bob@kehs.ksd.org
> > > 
> > > my $.02
> > > i dont care so much that gnome team dosn't produce RPMS. my largest amount
> > > of time wasted is dealing with the tar.gz's that have bad specs or no
> > > specs. It is a simple matter do make rpms with correct specs. Who ever
> > > produces the tars needs to check that they have good specs. I would be
> > > happy to donate my free cpu time building rpms for every one. I just dont
> > > have time to build specs for everything.
> > > 
> > > As to rpms, GNOME is on this planet to make X more useable. RPMS do the
> > > same. Therefore, RPMS, or the ability to make rpms from tarballs, should
> > > be available. If gnome is to be widely used it needs to be easy to
> > > install.
> > 
> > 
> > Geez, give the developers a break - it's still in beta.  I'm certain
> > once 1.0 comes out someone will spend the time to put together RPMS
> > that work, but with new releases coming out weekly, other things are
> > more important - like fixing bugs!
> > 
> > Dave
> 
> We all know that. I and some other people just want .spec files to have
> their version number up to date. That doesn't seem to happen so when
> I'm building rpm's to install stuff for my laptop I get wrong version 
> numbers and that eats up time. Just change the version in the spec file
> when you change versions. And on cvs too. Thanks.


First, let me clarify - I am NOT a developer (already working a 60
hour a week job and just don't have time right now), but I do download
the .tar.gz files and compile them myself.  It's really NOT that
difficult to compile GNOME programs.  

tar -zxf file.tar.gz 
cd into the directory
./configure
make
make install (as root)

My point was that while it's in beta and new versions are being
released weekly, you can't expect the developers to be spending time
writing spec files, but I am certain that when 1.0 comes out someone
will take the time to write a correct spec file.  If you want a RPM
now, volunteer to write the spec file - otherwise you'll have to wait
until a developer (or someone else) has the time to do it.

I think you need to remember that most of the developers are doing
this for free (yes, RedHat is paying some of them).  How easily we
forget that good software used to cost money :-)

Not trying to start a flame war - just trying to point out that we
need to be grateful to the developers for their volunteer work.

Dave