[plug] Easy Installation: Linux Desktop Market

[John Knight]

>John,
>
>As much as I think you're all-round nice bloke and all...

G'day. :)

>I think that your wrong
>on this one about the .package being the solution...
>
>Any Windows and even Mac zealots, to whom I've show the easy package 
>management
>built into Ubuntu have been truely impressed with how the whole software 
>system
>can be managed from one place, just by simply checking or unchecking a box. 
>It's
>that simple...

Indeed it is nice. I use Libranet which is debian based, and it's nice to 
have things auto install. But the problem is, it's one distro. Linux users 
tend to advocate their distro over others, and I think it's a major thing 
holding us back. Although I feel strongly about being able to install from 
outside, I also feel strongly about cross platform usability. .debs, .rpms. 
and tgzs everywhere, well it's good for a single distro sometimes, but not 
for the rest of the community.

>No offence mate, but your suggestion that we go back to the way Windows or 
>Mac
>does it, just because the user are familiar with it... is like suggesting a 
>car
>company stops having their cars run on Hydrogen just because everyone else 
>is
>still running on petrol.

I don't believe in necessarily doing something the way other OSes do, but I 
do believe in something that PEOPLE (must stress that) can be comfortable 
with. Comfortable doesn't mean a windoze interface either, but simply 
intuitive. Synaptic and similar apps are nice, but it's only a Debian thing, 
and you're probably relying on an older package, or if you get something 
new, it relies on something new that entails installing a whole new bracnh 
of packages, blah, blah......

Personally, I like having a  nice distro as a base, (like something .deb 
based with Synaptic, etc), but want to install things over the top. I want 
to tailor MY system, not Debian's. Ultimately, the base should be 
inconsequential, and the user free to put anything over the top. At the 
moment, we all tend to have stupid wars over which 'base' (distro) is the 
best for users, when we should be focusing on the apps they can install. So 
far, the only universal way of doing things is compiling a tarball. Think 
about that, my mates freak at the idea. So what is this argument about? 
Satisfying our own nerdy desires, or gaining users?

Ultimately, the idea behind autopackage isn't to replace this kind of stuff, 
but have a nice middle-ground. Distro-neutral packaging. So sure, Ubuntu's 
installers and repositories are nice (and I'd be the last person to knock 
that), but where does that leave other distro users? Should they all 
convert? Autopackage may not be the ultimate solution, but I certainly think 
it's a step in the right direction.

P.S. I'm trying to get some heat under the collars and get everyone to 
analyse their thinking, don't take me too seriously or be too offended, and 
please try and think outsode the square. ;)

>Just my two cents, but I still think you're a great bloke...
>
>James

Hehe, cheers. :)