[plug] Easy Installation: Linux Desktop Market

[Timothy White]

On 10/27/05, Mr Shayne <shayne at guild.murdoch.edu.au> wrote:
>
> Well, If someone is encouraging people to install software via tarballs or
> non .deb schemes on a debian system, its plainly bad advice. It means that
> the packager doesnt understand the file system anymore, and cant make
> "informed" decisions about dependancy management. Its a recipe for tears
> later down the track.
>
> So yeah, I'd call out folks for giving that advice, its bad and wrong
> advice. But not I said it wasnt banworthy. I agree thats draconian.

I disagree. I install a number of things from src, purely because I
can't get the latest version in a deb, or it depends on library's from
unstable and I don't want to get them, or I want the package optimised
for my architecture (amd64). I think you should not install library's
from src, but installing a package that other packages shouldn't
depend on, is no problem IMHO.

For example, I run the svn version of Gajim, I have installed
cinelerra, thoggen, lmms, kismet, and a list of other things, all from
src. This is where /usr/local comes in handy. And when debian/ubuntu
finally releases the latest version of something I've installed from
src, a simple 'make uninstall' removes my version, and allows the new
version to work fine!

If you are careful, then I think you can install src into any system
with a package management system no problems!

Tim