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KDE Installer Project
An Anonymous Coward writes: "There have been countless requests from KDE users, on the dot, on the lists, and even elsewhere, for a KDE Installer and Updater. Nick Betcher (aka Error403) has stepped up to the challenge and now needs your help to make this project really happen. His current code is in CVS and the project is in active development. The install starts off with an intro/detection screen, prompts the user for the type of installation, prompts for the destination of the KDE installation, and then prompts for the packages to install (see all the screenshots)."
The answer to your problems is simple. Compile from source. The makers of rpm packages are amongst the most anally retentive people on earth. KDE doesn't give a rat's ass what build number your libpng is, but the typical rpm will. If you use an rpm based distro long enough without reinstalling from scratch, you will eventually end up with a dozen libpngs that you can't get rid of because some program long since upgraded once needed it. cf the story on glibc hell.
Sure it takes longer to build a program than it does to install it. But it ain't much harder (./configure; make; make install). And you get to be 100% in control. Your computer is yours. Freenix isn't Windows. Don't let the distros tell you what to do.
Checking for dependencies is a Good Thing(tm). Using it to install generic one-size-fits-all binaries optimized for the lowest common denominator is a Bad Thing(tm).
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
How about some manner of GENERIC installer? What a waste to have everyone who wants a GUI installer to have to roll one from scratch. This would even give all programs a common look-and-feel for their installations. Wouldn't that be nice?
Frankly I'll never convince my sister to "./configure; make; make test; make install". It'll just never happen. Even "apt-get install" is too much for some people. Having a common GUI installer with a consistant look and feel would be REALLY beneficial to new users and wouldn't hurt us l33t h4x0rz either...
I'm of the general philosophy that more effort needs to go in to GENERIC tools and less into non-portable or app-specific ones, that way real, large-scale, code reuse can happen.
Justin Dubs
I can''t believe this made slashdot :-( This is not good for KDE PR. Let me explain; this project is nothing more than a few bits of GUI created with QT's designer, there is no code behind it except for the auto generated stuff from designer and the guy who is "writting" it is a very new programmer with unfortuantly a very young attitude. I wish it was other wise but this project is doomed from the start, it has no planning and the only clear goal is to create an installer, how it will work is a mystery to the author but he has a gui.
I really feel bad posting this, GNU projects should be about community and sharing but you really should realise that this is one guy (that honestly has little clue) and is not the official KDE installer. My heart sunk when I saw this article, I do realise that KDE needs an installer but unfortualtly is a bit of a way off yet. For now, Debian apt is by far the best way to install KDE in binary form because of the way it's packaged but a lot of people don't run Debian. Compiling from source is obviously the most flexible route but is more trouble for those of us that want to get things done.
Again, this is unfortunate, please read the posts on dot.kde.org where the author has posted some very strange remarks but it backs this post up. I guess everything has a bright side though and this project highlights the easy of use of QT Designer.
A journey of a thousand miles starts with a brutal anal raping at airport security