Re: How about a complete installation package?

["Uri David Akavia" <uridavid akavia gmail com>]

Hi.

I'm not speaking for the Gnumeric team, but as a private user.
Your problem doesn't seem to be with the Gnumeric team, but rather
with the configuration of your distribution.

I'm not sure I can see what place (if any) Gnumeric has on a server.
If your company sets up an X server with thin clients, obviously, the
administrators of that server should install Gnumeric on it. If you
are referring to another type of server (file, mail, web), I don't
understand why you would want to install Gnumeric on it.

If you have superuser permissions to your workstation, you can easily
install Gnumeric. All Linux distributions require superuser
permissions to install packages. If you wish to compile everything
yourself (highly unrecommended) you can use tools like JHBuild.

Most distributions have a conflict resolution mechanism. I was under
the impression that KNOPPIX is a Debian based system, and so can be
easily upgradable using tools like Synaptic or apt-get. Since Gnumeric
1.8 was just released, you might have to wait a while. If your
distribution is so out of date the newest version of Gnumeric you can
get is 1.0.5, consider moving to a new distribution. Ubuntu has gotten
very good reviews.

Hope this helps,

Uri David Akavia

On Feb 8, 2008 7:50 PM, O. A. Rondon <or virginia edu> wrote:
> Dear gnumeric team,
>
> I have used some older version of gnumeric, and I find it perhaps a
> superior application than OpenOffice Calc, etc. But the version I have
> used (1.0.5), provided by the Linux distro installed in our server is
> obviously obsolete. I have tried to install the latest 1.8.1 which
> should be much more powerful and bug free. However, I am very
> disappointed that:
> - even my fairly recent KNOPPIX 5.1 Linux distro lags well behind in the
> versions of several libraries needed to compile and install gnumeric 1.8.1
> - even if my installation were up to date, I still would need super-user
> privileges to install the package. I am su for my workstation, but the
> root administrator of our servers would  balk (with reason) at having to
> update/install so many additional packages
> - even if I had the patience to install the missing packages myself, I
> would first have to hunt around for the required versions, and hope that
> no further dependencies come up (an unlikely hope) as I install them
>
> In summary, why not distribute a stand-alone package that includes all
> the necessary libraries, so users can GET TO USE gnumeric?
>
> The fundamental flaw of Linux to be a widely installed platform is the
> apparent expectation of the Linux developer community that the general
> public will flock to a system that is absolutely user UNfriendly, for
> even semi-experts, like myself. Only an extremely tiny fraction of
> computer users have the time, expertise and inclination to do this kind
> of work. Linux, gnumeric, etc., will remain the playground of hackers,
> who have the most powerful tools at their disposal, but won't share them
> with anyone who is not also a hacker. Hopefully, the gnumeric team will
> take some steps to improve this situation.
>
> Regards,
>
> Oscar R.
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