Re: Redhat and Tetex

> On Tue, Jan 27, 2004 at 11:27:11PM +0000, Robin Fairbairns wrote:
> 
> > both of which are irrelevant to the original question.  redhat always
> > has been cr@p with tex, and the fact that a non-redhat thing, on a redhat
> > server, is better doesn't help.
> 
> If there were more frequent releases, or even a small amount of
> involvement from the TeX community (there is practically none), you
> may have less to complain about.

you want to encourage rapidity of release, so you can stay one step
behind the bleeding edge?  or what?

why should the tex community be involved in a commercial organisation?
i've been using tetex 2 in this department for a _long_ time, and
tetex's gone through at least one (possibly 2) full new versions since
then.  what on earth more do you want? ... i'm almost beginning to
believe that you really are seeking more fly-by-night software.

> One example: PassiveTeX is broken in several ways, but I don't have
> the expertise to fix it -- and it is seemingly no longer maintained;
> certainly not actively.  There are some well known bugs that are very
> small in scope but prevent documents from being processed, and yet
> there is no-one around to say what's up.

that's right.  the developer community have moved on from using it, so
no-one sees any point in working on it.  i'll see about getting it
withdrawn from distributions, next month when we all meet.  (we,
including one of the authors of passivetex.)

> So where is the TeX community?  Not rushing to help, that's certain.
> Pointing and laughing and saying 'cr@p' (ho ho) is all very
> comfortable, but why not help make things better?

i repeat, why _should_ i rush to help those who show absolutely no
inclination to help themselves?  why _should_ i rush to help a company
that wants to charge huge amounts of money for minuscule services?
money that my department can't afford, and my university has (probably)
judged not reasonable for the services offered.  what is there in it for
me?  surely the free software community is abandoning redhat in droves?
why should i, or any other more reputable tex maintainer, jump on board?