Re: GRAB and APT

On Tue, Feb 19, 2002 at 10:36:30AM -0800, Greg Kurtzer wrote:
> You have to remember that when I started GRAB, there was no Apt4RPM project
Well, now that you've told me... I remember :)

> > > I created repositories, and rebuilt all of the Apt RPMS for
> >             ^^^^^^^^^^^^
> > > many OS's. I used it in place of GRAB everywhere I could. IT
> > Yes, and it's the most effort-taking part AFAIK.  But this way
> > you become at least partially "co-vendor" :(
> I am not sure I follow...
I mean that tracking deps for any given non-zero-sized rep is
more than time-taking.  So it's better handled by coordinated
package maintainers.

> My point was only some of the smaller projects that could
> replace these projects are not always given the same level of
> attention and contributions as the larger more well known
> projects.
Well, small but well-managed and to-the-point projects grow into
bigger ones.  No-one really gets born that big as Apache ;-)

> > No-no-no-no-no.  Of course if significant effort has been put in
> > -and- community is around -and- it says they like it, why not?
> Simply saying "why not" is way too passive for my tastes.
Probably -- now *I*'ve taken sloppy words.

> I did it because I saw a need. There was nothing else released
> in the community that worked the way I wanted. I was not asking
> for much, just a way to keep the systems I manage up to date,
> be able to find RPMS on the net, and streamline the
> installation/verification process.
For me it became a distro question (well, now I *do* remember
your mentioned employee affairs, so...).

> I released the code because I knew that if some members of the
> community also had a need for this type of an application they
> can also benefit, not to mention the role of community support
> in the form of code/idea contributions.
Sure.  Maybe I was overly impressed by "300 CD players" two years
ago and not-so-old "Freshmeat stance on 'Trivial Software'" ed...

[skip--yep]

> > Greg, don't take it up to heart -- it was never meant as
> > criticism but rather "but did you see that" :-)
> Don't worry about that. Of course I don't take it personally. 
Thanks.  Seen too much of crude flames towards self-giving people
:(

> point. Simply because another project exists, does not mean there can not be
> competition. Because of the altruistic nature of the community, the best case
Sure!

> > > just believe that GRAB works as well, and fills certain voids
> > > that Apt leaves behind. BTW, I have approx 15,000 downloads of
> > > GRAB, (most from GRAB updating itself by users running it from
> > > CRON).
> > BTW what could be done easier if whole thing is already
> > apt-friendly?  Could you spend a few words on that topic -- maybe
> > it would make sense to grab it into distro as well.
> What do you mean the whole thing? Do you mean the current
> repositories all over the net being Apt-friendly?
No -- I meant at least our one (Sisyphus project, found at
ftp.altlinux.com/pub/distributions/ALTLinux/Sisyphus).

> Grab it into distro? I am not sure I understand...
For example, there are quite a few users favouring Mdk's urpmi
for its ability of "going where the OS was installed from and
installing that thing and its dependencies".  If GRAB could do
that better, your community would surely get somewhat broader ;-)

> BTW, what is your position/role with altlinux?
Kind of regional co-developer -- I'm situated in Ukraine and work
on l10n and do some amount of opensource PR ;-), and ALT Linux Team 
is situated in Moscow, Russia.

-- 
 ---- WBR, Michael Shigorin <[email protected]>
  ------ http://visa.chem.univ.kiev.ua/~mike/