[packman] Maintainers speak up

[Willem Franssen]

Here is not a Maintainer speaking up, but an average user , the so 
called Joe User, speaking up. I'm using OpenSUSE since version 10.2, so 
about 5 years, although in a dual boot with Windows. In general I'm very 
satisfied with OpenSUSE, now I'm using version 12.1 + KDE 4.7.2

First let me stress I couldn't use OpenSUSe without the good work of all 
you maintainers and packagers. In my experience providing third party 
software for OpenSUSE has grown worse since Packman went in a kind of 
disarray. I do regret this very much. What you're discussing here imho 
is a perfect example of one of the great weaknesses of the concept 
behind the mirad of different Linux-distributions and their silly 
upgrade cycles of every 6, or 8 months.

Am I really a Joe User? I don't think so, cause otherwise I wouldn't 
never ever have heard of Linux. Nevertheless I know what I want as a Joe 
User: a stable OS, a stable core and INDEPENDENT applications. Is this 
Windows chit chat? No it is what the hundreds of different Linux 
communities never wished to consider and what they're facing the results 
of now: after 20 years Linux never made it to the common desktop and 
imho with this idiot and userunfriendly concept it never will. In other 
words: maintainers, packagers and Joe User are in a way the victims of 
the same wrong concept. Besides that this concept hinders imho fast 
development and proper promotion of several good Linux-applications and 
blocks the entrance of many (proprietary) GAMES. For instance: why do I 
have to wait on LibreOffice 3.5 with new features while it is out now 
for about 5 months (well this is not a Packman-case actually, but it's a 
symptom of what is going worse with OpenSUSE), why do I have to wait a 
long while on VLC 2.0 and - when it arrives finally - there is no 
vlc-mozillaplugin, why do I have to wait  several months on WinFF 1.4.2 
(the Enzokiel-packages didn't work) untill the Packman team (or what's 
been left of it) had the time to package (and now it works fine)? Cause 
you're all locked up in the wrong concept.

Please don't misunderstand me: I"m not blaming you, I'm not blaming the 
OpenSUSE distribution, I blame the concept behind all Linux desktop 
distributions. It simply doesn't make sense. What do I as Joe User 
expect a Linux distribution to be?

1. an OS  I don't need to upgrade every six (Ubuntu), or eight 
(OpenSUSE) months. If a new Linux-kernel provides  new and/ or 
additional drivers I want to be able to install those drivers in my 
current installed Linux-os, without breaking the whole system.
2. I want a standardised and unificied install-mechanism for all 
Linux-distributions.
3. I want to get rid of the silly fragmentation in different audio- and 
video systems and frameworks. I can't explain to any person why there is 
jack, phonon, alsa, you name it (for instance).
4. I want to be able to make my own update/upgrade/install decisions 
without being dependent on the work and available time of maintainers 
and packagers. Some geeks would say now: well compile it yourself from 
source. Wrong answer: Joe User never will do that. He wants to use the 
software, not compile it. Should I built my own car before buying and 
driving it? Come on!
5. Let's get rid of the horrible incompatibility of libraries and 
protocols, let's get rid of the dependency-relationships while updating, 
let's introduce backward compatibility, let applications have their own 
standardized Linux-installer, etc., etc.
6. I want to use my current installed Linux-os for many years to come, 
meanwhile being able to install the newest versions of applications 
without breaking the system, breaking dependencies, or being forced to 
uninstall other applications or packages.
6 Finally: if the above came true application developpers could maintain 
and package their apps themselves for every Linux-distribution and new 
versions would be available for Joe User directly and independently and 
without any concern of messing up the system.

Well there should be something to dream of, shouldn't it? And if, over 
ten years, these dreams come true, no one is using a desktop anymore.
I'm not an IT-geek or professional, so I might have described some 
technical facts wrong. But you know what I mean, don't you?

I appreciate your work, I can't use OpenSUSE without it.
Have fun, kind regards
Willem Franssen


Op 04-05-12 21:45, Pascal Bleser schreef:
> On 2012-05-04 20:12:05 (+0100), Cristian Morales Vega<reddwarf at opensuse.org>  wrote:
> [...]
>> I can also take ownership of the gstreamer things (the latest ones,
>> those "gstreamer-0.10.4" and "gstreamer010-plugins-good-0.10.24" can
>> be kept as a community effort). I don't mind taking care of the
>> relationship with multimedia:libs, fixing problems here.
> Thank you, they're yours :)
>
> Added you as maintainer to all the *gstreamer* in Essentials.
>
> cheers
>
>
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