Re: /usr -> /usr/local

On 8/19/07, Mike Hearn <[email protected]> wrote:
> The whole idea of having /usr vs /usr/local is absurd
> and a textbook example of how not to do namespace
> design. Even if everything put into /usr/local was respected tomorrow,
> it wouldn't solve the problem of name conflicts.

Indeed.

> There were originally two reasons for designing autopackage to use the
> FHS, rather than something like Thomas Leonards ZeroInstall:
>
> 1) It meant better integration *now* with desktop environments like
> GNOME and KDE
> 2) I thought ZeroInstall was too radical and that something more unixy
> like autopackage would be more easily accepted by mainstream distros
>
> (2) turned out to be completely wrong - anything other than the status
> quo was too radical, thus invalidating that reason.

And, of course, Zero Install is now in the main repositories of
Ubuntu, Debian and Fedora (although none of them have it installed by
default yet).

> (1) was still a
> good reason, but it would probably have been easier to improve
> GNOME/KDE than to simply break everything else to fit UNIX.

Any suggestions for improving Zero2Desktop (apart from the name,
obviously ;-)? Currently, it installs an item in the GNOME and KDE
menus for each program you install, but it doesn't do anything else.

It could be made to do more (desktop icons, MIME handlers, etc). What
else is needed?

> Concrete suggestion-wise, take a look at:
>
> http://live.gnome.org/PackagingAbstractionLayer

Interesting. Note that Zero Install now provides an abstraction over
the distribution packaging system. e.g. if you run AbiWord then it can
either download a new copy of AbiWord and its dependencies, or use
existing packages. See the screenshots here:

  http://0install.net/distribution-integration.html

BTW, there's a Zero Install APBuild feed here:

  http://0install.net/2007/3rd-party/APBuild.xml

If you're prefer to host it at autopackage.org, let me know. I'm sure
you appreciate the importance of having upstream developers host their
own packages ;-) Or, feel free to link to our feed.

Using the feed means users get automatic updates, sharing between
users without needing to enter passwords, and digital signature checks
for free.


-- 
Dr Thomas Leonard		http://rox.sourceforge.net
GPG: 9242 9807 C985 3C07 44A6  8B9A AE07 8280 59A5 3CC1

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