Re: Desktop Collaboration
From: Sybren Stuvel (sybrenUSE_at_YOURthirdtower.imagination.com)
Date: 08/26/04
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Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2004 21:56:05 +0200
Sean E. Fao enlightened us with:
> This morning, I was considering the idea of collaborating all
> projects related to desktop development into a single project,
> somewhat like the Linux kernel.
Like the freedesktop.org people?
> like the kernel, I see many projects that are very much related to
> each other and that maybe could be included in the source tree of an
> X Windows system, such as x.org or freedesktop.org.
freedesktop.org is not an X Window system. The first line of their
mission statement:
freedesktop.org was formed in March 2000 to encourage cooperation
among open source desktops for the X Window System.
> Perhaps the ability to build ones own desktop would be appealing to
> some. For instance, the ability to select to include KDE and Gnome
> (as well as select all sub-components of those projects, separately)
> by selecting those options in a configuration utility, would build
> modules for those two packages that included all the necessary
> binaries, libraries, etc. to make those packages run, in addition to
> the possible "goodies" end users selected in the configuration.
Sounds like what I do with Gentoo. I don't know if you know about this
distribution, so let me explain. It compiles everything from source.
By doing this, it allows the end user to determine what gets installed
and what not. Via a configuration file, for instance, I tell the
system that I do want Gnome support but not KDE support, whenever such
a choise exists when compiling a program.
> One issue I see possibly stemming as a result of this type of system
> is that releases for individual projects may slow, as it takes time
> to merge work-in-progress into the source tree. I can also see an
> issue between the people that dictate what goes in/out of the
> "mother package" and the developers that work on the individual
> projects because of a lack of agreement.
Ah, I get your point. You want some configuration program like the
"make menuconfig" program of the kernel. Isn't that part of your
distribution?
> Another argument one might ask is, "Why collaborate in the first
> place? We already have the ability to download each individual
> package separately and compile it on our own. What would we gain
> from having everything in a single repository?"
Well, my distribution *has* that single repository. All I have to do
is type "emerge kde" and a few (well, a lot of) hours of compiling
later I have KDE, including all it's requirements and dependencies.
> All I have to offer is my belief that it could be easier for end
> users to customize their desktops if they had all the source located
> in a single tree.
The location of the source doesn't matter at all. What matters is the
way in which a user can install programs. The downside of all the
source in one package, is that it would be a tremendous beast to
download and update.
> What do you think?
I think you should give Gentoo a try.
Sybren
-- The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?
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