>I looked it up, and saw that it had been mentioned in the quickies before, but never explained in greater length.
And the fact that it had been mentioned in a Quickies post in no way detracts from the legitimay of this review. Can you imagine if the New York Times refused to review a book just because the Chicago Sun-Times had already reviewed it? Okay, better analogy: Can you imagine the New York Times refused to publish a review because the editor had mentioned liking the book in an opinion column? The notion is ludicrous, yet that's what some of the (immature and desperately in need of something to do) Slashdot readership wants. Both the above analogies apply.
Good grief, people, you want Linux software to only be mentioned on Freshmeat, and want hardware to only be mentioned on Tom's Hardware. No software, no hardware; what, then? The winers complain about stories NOT related to hardware and software.
Guess it's time to pack up; the whiners don't want any stories posted.:^)
>I thought it was a neat product, but certainly not my ideal keyboard. Specialized product, limited audience, but neat.
>That's all:)
Amen, brotha.:^) I didn't really care about it, either, but I could see how this is a neat thing. If I had a need for an expensive, submersible, rollable keyboard, I'd be running to get one. As it is, tho, I don't.
At least I didn't whine that it was in the Quickies section already (perhaps my life got in the way of remembering this fact?;^)
I have to agree with the original poster. Go away if you don't like Slashdot. Folks like me do.
Slashdot is pretty much the same as it was when it started. Not everything is new, not everything is serious/important/whatever. It's just a bunch of stories that the folks who run Slashdot find entertaining/amusing/interesting/important/whateve r. If you don't, then don't read.
Oddly enough, I've started seeing "Why are there so many Linux stories. Not all of us use Linux. Waaaaah!" a lot. Reality check: Slashdot isn't as Linux-oriented as it was when it was founded.
Again, if you don't like the way Slashdot is run, remember this: Slashdot was founded by some guys who wanted a news site that presented info that *they* were interested in. If that's not good enough for you, why not do the same?
And, to be blunt, if your answer is, "I don't have the time/resources/mental capacity to do so," then shut UP! >:^( It irks me to no end that people seem to think that they can dictate the way a site is run without taking a more proactive stance. So your stories get refused. Big deal. Live with it. Once you enter "The Real World" you'll have to grow used to rejection and take it like an adult. That, quite frankly, is how the world of journalism works: if the publisher doesn't like your story, it gets rejected, and whining, quite frankly, sends you to the unemployment line eventually. So the best policy is to just be an adult and move on.
new guess...checking to make sure it's a Winbloze machine running IE?:^( Ah hell; guess it's back to playing the illegal ROMs...nice try, guys, just try not to half-ass it next time.
Listen. If you really are THE John Carmack, you just took all that respect I had for you (and it was a good deal of respect, mind you) and stomped on it, cut off its head, and shit down its throat.
What you need is a good butane regulator, and this here's the best they make.
No shit...maybe soon I'll turn my K6-300 based machine into an 800Mhz Athlon-based machine, and get put on Slashdot. Hell, that's what this story sounds like.:^P
I'd like to take one of those stupid-ass new teensy-tiny Compaq Presario cases and find a way to shove some real, off-the-shelf hardware into one.;^)
Sorry, Bro; while I do admire Propaganda:^) I do believe this post should have been moderated down to about -5000 for being such an extreme case of FUCKING FLAMEBAIT!
I bet a relatively new reader who might be mildly interested in this post would have bothered to look for them.:^P
Damn, don't ya have anything else to do? Are you a student? If so, finals are undoubtedly coming up...if not, how 'bout some laundry, some housecleaning, etc.? Put a little soap and water on those dirty dishes that are piling up since you're too busy hunting down redundant posts? How's the weather where you're living? Where I am, it's beautiful. I skipped out on church to sleep in (I'm bad) and since my home church has low numbers, they don't meet every Sunday, and I'm going to be a bad bad person and mow some grass since It's beautiful and sunshiny. Unlike some of my coding friends, I no longer pass for a vampire; I'm getting a bit brown. While that's not healthy, it *does* prove that I'm not sitting at the computer all day hunting down redundant Slashdot posts.
Truthfully, I went ahead and looked at the site again...it's funny as hell, funnier than that damn AfroSquad, almost as funny as watching Troops. "All suspects are guilty. Period. Otherwise, they wouldn't be suspects, would they?"
Heh, I've got one too...and I might consider building this, if only:
1.) it's less sensitive to shock 2.) (related to 1) less likely to crap out randomly (I've heard from others w/this problem) 3.) if there's any alternative to using SmartMedia cards
Really; I think you're thinking of Palpatine's Imperial forces, which, being a Navy & Army that spans a galaxy, can whup the Klingons with one white-armored arm tied behind each Stormtrooper's back.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, there's a character in a Star Wars book named Kyp Duron who gets rescued from the spice mines of Kessel, gets turned to the dark side by a supposedly long-dead Sith Lord, goes searching out his brother who was an Imperial conscript, and ends up destroying the system that the Empire uses as its training grounds--his brother with them.
Ugh--I can see it now "Lucasfilm sues AMD for copyright infringement."
Are you using Netscape 4.0+? If so... Go to View->Page Source Highlight link hit Control(Or Apple, if yer on a Mac)-C Hit Alt(or Apple, if yer on a Mac)-L Hit Control(or...ah, you get the picture)-V Hit Enter It took you longer to post the comment "Yes, but one that has a life." than it did for me to get the proper URL. How did I know this? Am I some geek with nothing better to do? Nope...aside from the view->Page source bit, this is pretty standard cut-and-paste procedure. Ugh. BTW, you're right, URLs should be checked...but it's easy enough to get past this.
Heh, Shane...read my Slashname backwards. Hehehe...
You've hit the nail on the head (pardon the pun:^) with that one. And that's not only the problem with Windows, it's the problem with MacOS, and also the problem with KDE & GNOME (although much less so with GNOME.) Too much reinvention of the wheel.
Granted, a number of folks write the software they're writing for fun. Some folks might simply want to re-implement some feature just to prove they can. Some folks might want to make what they feel is a more streamlined feature. Still other folks might be doing what they're doing as a class project. Perhaps they *must* re-implement some standard tool.
Nevertheless, I feel that KDE, and, to a lesser degree, GNOME, are ignoring what I feel (and many other folks feel) is one of the great strengths of UNIX or a UNIX-like platform: the existence of scripting languages.
True, languages such as Perl and Python exist on other platforms. Perhaps this is an unfair comparison since Perl, for one, was originally a UNIX-based language. But, quite frankly, these languages can exploit the underlying OS to an extent that seems impossible to someone raised on BASIC-based languages: you don't have to go PEEKing and POKEing about to do something, and, in many cases, a function in a scripting language nearly matches its matching C function.
Even better, languages like TCL can allow their code to be modified by the actual script itself (Perl allows this; some folks consider this to be a flaw, rather than a feature, since it presents a rather nasty security risk when quotes are used incorrectly in a script.) during execution. Substitution is one of those great things that I miss when I code in C.
Okay, so maybe this post reveals that I'm not the world's greatest (or most knowledgeable) coder. But, my point is this: before KDE and GNOME came about, TkDesk had gained a fair amount of notariety in the free software world. While I don't see myself reverting back to using TkDesk any time soon, I do rather miss a number of features on the system. When we killed it, we killed a lot of interest in scripting (yeah, THAT's sure to get the flames going!:^) outside of CGI and shell scripting type chores. And yes, I truly believe that a scripted desktop simple enough for Granny is possible.:^)
Really, I'm currently using Mandrake 7 as my distro, and I didn't notice any GNU apps missing, nor did I notice any system calls missing. It's actually quite a simple procedure to open a terminal window and grep your heart out.:^)
I do have to agree with you, though--there's little, if any, effort in the KDE & GNOME camps to exploit the awesome features of UNIX-like OSs. However, if you feel that Windoze/MacOS are utterly powerless, then I have strong doubts you have much experience with either OS (although I have to agree with you on Windows.:^)
Most folks who trash MacOS are totally clueless about the OS. It's true: MacOS is no more stable than Windows; it's also true that until the latest Mach/BSD/OpenStep-based MacOS X that the system had a warped sense of humor when it came to multitasking. Quite frankly, though, I've run into a number of apps on other systems that like to do cute tricks like bumping up their priority and throwing modal dialogs up until a particular task is done--not exactly allowing for multitasking mahem!
While, like you, I'm hoping for KDE/GNOME-based tools that rival command-line tools, I'm also hoping for these systems to come CLOSER to MacOS/Win9x functionality--and perhaps surpassing this functionality.:^)
One inherent problem in KDE/GNOME comes from the rather fractured nature of X11R6 interfaces:
No integration between basic desktop apps and regular apps.
On a Mac and on a Windows machine, it's possible to make folders on the desktop and have save/load folders default to the desktop. I used to hate Macs, but now that I'm forced to work with them quite often, I have to admit that this is a nice feature. It even inspired me to do the same under Windows.:^)
Granted, it's not going to be possible to persuade everyone to use a GNOME standard dialog, a KDE standard dialog, or whatever comes along in three months. But it's a nice dream.
That all being said, the basic desktop formula is inherently flawed. I catch myself having to roll up windows WAAAAAAY too often to "get at" some part of the desktop. This is not only under MacOS, but also under Linux (I use gmc with Window Maker.) Quite often under MacOS I'll have a "Fast Find" application open, at least one printer queue open, and at least one QuarkXPress document open. Ugh. I'd like a ONE-CLICK solution, if that's possible.
And quite frankly, I'm not sure what the answer would be. Maybe a two-paned file manager with a shelf? I've always been a bit partial to the NeXTish Workspace paradigm, but I find it to be a bit flawed, too.:^(
Perhaps, just to shorten this down a bit, it'd be best if KDE/GNOME based their desktop dirs not on a "Desktop" dir in the user's home dir, but on the actual HOME DIR. It may seem a bit nitpicky, but, considering how many X apps default to the HOME DIR, it stands to reason that the desktop should represent that dir instead of some dir right off of the home dir. While I realize I can symlink to dirs in my homedir, and while I realize this would require some COOPERATION (gasp!) between different desktop interface camps, I think it's a doable venture.
However, they probably won't on Caldera or SuSE--and won't work without a --nodeps --force on Slackware.
The problem is in requiring a database on every stinkin' dependency on a system. If I were to, say, upgrade something by source before anyone with the know-how got around to making an RPM (I'm far too lazy to learn how to build my own RPMs--and I was scared off when I saw that weighty tome that is "Maximum RPM";^) then later, if I don't install the RPMs then try to merely use -ihv to install the RPM, I get failed deps and just have to use --nodeps --force.
Also, one has to have a Red Hat-compliant system to build Red Hat-compliant RPMs (if anyone knows otherwise, please let me know.)
I suppose that *my* point is that there should be a more generic sort of package management system, one not dependent on a rigid compliance to a set of standards. This wouldn't be as hard to handle as it sounds; quite frankly, a lot of software authors use autoconf and automake to maintain source packages, and configure can find a number of deps--without having to depend on a rigid database system. True, configure isn't all that fast--but how many packages does the average person install in a day?
I am quite aware of the --force command-line option, as well as --nodeps.
The fact is, different distros use different libs, different dir structures, etc. If you need to use --force --nodeps to install an RPM, then the package maintainer might as well have used a Slack package; in other words, just make a.tgz of the darn thing. The RPM database is supposed to help make system maintenance a non-issue; instead, because the RPM concept is so flawed, it's more hassle at times than an actual help.
Also, before you Debian fascists speak up, I'd just like to say that I'd like to have a setup that I *didn't* have to use a package manager, but could if I wanted to. Okay, that sounds like a newbie thought, but bear with me. Why not set up a packaging system that could, if deps fail, check the deps on its own? Open ld.so.conf and check those dirs, etc. It wouldn't be as impossible as it sounds, and would make installing from source almost a non-issue.
Current distros were built more-or-less from scratch. While the package management and configuration management tools on a number of systems are impressive, I don't think they're anywhere close to what they could be.
A lot of folks grouse about how many distros there are right now. Quite frankly, though, I think that when Apple put together their own BSD system, they chose their name wisely: Darwin is indeed a wise name for a free-software project. Many steps have been taken in the evolution of free software, and some have fallen by the wayside due to disuse/poor design/etc. But the important thing to remember is that all the config managers and package managers out there got started by someone saying "this sucks; let's do something different."
The one thing I'd like to see change is the necessity for using a package manager to manage packages, and the risk of breaking config management tools simply by configing by hand once in a while (I've had problems with both on Red Hat/Mandrake/SuSE systems.) From what I've heard, it's kind of a necessity for Debian sytems to use the package manager to not break dependencies. Mandrake's terrible because all its packages have "MDK" in the name of the package; some Red Hat packages don't install at all.
What I'd like to see is something a bit like "alien" that can deal with rpms/potatoes/tgz/whatever, use traditional approaches to finding dependencies (if all else fails, find the required libs) and then use an "Encap"-like method of installing packages (i.e. use a seperate dir for every package, when convenient.)
Slashdot Mirror
But I'm not from Australia. Why do I care?
WTF? News for Nerds? Fake AMD's?
:^)
Shouldn't it be on Tom's?
I read this, like, ten minutes ago on some other site. You suck.
Oh yeah; if there was any software mentioned, that should be somewhere else other than here, too.
>I looked it up, and saw that it had been mentioned in the quickies before, but never explained in greater length.
:^)
:^) I didn't really care about it, either, but I could see how this is a neat thing. If I had a need for an expensive, submersible, rollable keyboard, I'd be running to get one. As it is, tho, I don't.
;^)
And the fact that it had been mentioned in a Quickies post in no way detracts from the legitimay of this review. Can you imagine if the New York Times refused to review a book just because the Chicago Sun-Times had already reviewed it? Okay, better analogy: Can you imagine the New York Times refused to publish a review because the editor had mentioned liking the book in an opinion column? The notion is ludicrous, yet that's what some of the (immature and desperately in need of something to do) Slashdot readership wants. Both the above analogies apply.
Good grief, people, you want Linux software to only be mentioned on Freshmeat, and want hardware to only be mentioned on Tom's Hardware. No software, no hardware; what, then? The winers complain about stories NOT related to hardware and software.
Guess it's time to pack up; the whiners don't want any stories posted.
>I thought it was a neat product, but certainly not my ideal keyboard. Specialized product, limited audience, but neat.
>That's all:)
Amen, brotha.
At least I didn't whine that it was in the Quickies section already (perhaps my life got in the way of remembering this fact?
I have to agree with the original poster. Go away if you don't like Slashdot. Folks like me do.
e r. If you don't, then don't read.
Slashdot is pretty much the same as it was when it started. Not everything is new, not everything is serious/important/whatever. It's just a bunch of stories that the folks who run Slashdot find entertaining/amusing/interesting/important/whatev
Oddly enough, I've started seeing "Why are there so many Linux stories. Not all of us use Linux. Waaaaah!" a lot. Reality check: Slashdot isn't as Linux-oriented as it was when it was founded.
Again, if you don't like the way Slashdot is run, remember this: Slashdot was founded by some guys who wanted a news site that presented info that *they* were interested in. If that's not good enough for you, why not do the same?
And, to be blunt, if your answer is, "I don't have the time/resources/mental capacity to do so," then shut UP! >:^( It irks me to no end that people seem to think that they can dictate the way a site is run without taking a more proactive stance. So your stories get refused. Big deal. Live with it. Once you enter "The Real World" you'll have to grow used to rejection and take it like an adult. That, quite frankly, is how the world of journalism works: if the publisher doesn't like your story, it gets rejected, and whining, quite frankly, sends you to the unemployment line eventually. So the best policy is to just be an adult and move on.
whups...didn't read too closely there. :^}
:^( Ah hell; guess it's back to playing the illegal ROMs...nice try, guys, just try not to half-ass it next time.
new guess...checking to make sure it's a Winbloze machine running IE?
Take a look at this.
0 0/11:35:39.shtml,
:^P
:^)
JavaScript Error:
http://www.ga-source.com/all/news/bits/04+05+20
line 147:
unterminated string literal.
document.writeln("
^
JavaScript Error: http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp, line
43:
swVersion is not defined.
JavaScript Error: http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp, line
29:
syntax error.
^
JavaScript Error: http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp, line
43:
swVersion is not defined.
JavaScript Error: http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp, line
29:
syntax error.
^
JavaScript Error: http://v2.shockwave.com/bin/v2/entry.jsp, line
43:
swVersion is not defined.
Is it my imagination, or are they trying to use JavaScript to create an HTML document with JavaScript, and forgot to terminate a string?
Thought that was a mistake only amateurs such as myself made.
how much money do you think they make off of defender nowadays?
I assume you have the numbers to back up your claim that most /. readers are Windows users...right?
:^)
I'm a windows user...about once a month, I boot it up to make sure nothing's gone wrong, run ScanDisk, then reboot.
Uh-huh. This from the almighty Carmack.
Listen. If you really are THE John Carmack, you just took all that respect I had for you (and it was a good deal of respect, mind you) and stomped on it, cut off its head, and shit down its throat.
Ugh.
What you need is a good butane regulator, and this here's the best they make.
:^P
;^)
No shit...maybe soon I'll turn my K6-300 based machine into an 800Mhz Athlon-based machine, and get put on Slashdot. Hell, that's what this story sounds like.
I'd like to take one of those stupid-ass new teensy-tiny Compaq Presario cases and find a way to shove some real, off-the-shelf hardware into one.
Sorry, Bro; while I do admire Propaganda :^) I do believe this post should have been moderated down to about -5000 for being such an extreme case of FUCKING FLAMEBAIT!
Why did you bother replying if you don't like the idea of MP3's?
Matter of fact, why did you even BOTHER TO CLICK ON THE LINK? JESUS!!! >:^(
Wonder how long we can get it working with Linux...
Hrm, my video card works with linux via X11R6 just fine...but my fine video card DOES NOT run Linux.
Learn to FUCKING READ before you post next time.
I bet a relatively new reader who might be mildly interested in this post would have bothered to look for them. :^P
Damn, don't ya have anything else to do? Are you a student? If so, finals are undoubtedly coming up...if not, how 'bout some laundry, some housecleaning, etc.? Put a little soap and water on those dirty dishes that are piling up since you're too busy hunting down redundant posts? How's the weather where you're living? Where I am, it's beautiful. I skipped out on church to sleep in (I'm bad) and since my home church has low numbers, they don't meet every Sunday, and I'm going to be a bad bad person and mow some grass since It's beautiful and sunshiny. Unlike some of my coding friends, I no longer pass for a vampire; I'm getting a bit brown. While that's not healthy, it *does* prove that I'm not sitting at the computer all day hunting down redundant Slashdot posts.
Truthfully, I went ahead and looked at the site again...it's funny as hell, funnier than that damn AfroSquad, almost as funny as watching Troops. "All suspects are guilty. Period. Otherwise, they wouldn't be suspects, would they?"
Heh, I've got one too...and I might consider building this, if only:
1.) it's less sensitive to shock
2.) (related to 1) less likely to crap out randomly (I've heard from others w/this problem)
3.) if there's any alternative to using SmartMedia cards
Really; I think you're thinking of Palpatine's Imperial forces, which, being a Navy & Army that spans a galaxy, can whup the Klingons with one white-armored arm tied behind each Stormtrooper's back.
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, there's a character in a Star Wars book named Kyp Duron who gets rescued from the spice mines of Kessel, gets turned to the dark side by a supposedly long-dead Sith Lord, goes searching out his brother who was an Imperial conscript, and ends up destroying the system that the Empire uses as its training grounds--his brother with them.
Ugh--I can see it now "Lucasfilm sues AMD for copyright infringement."
Are you using Netscape 4.0+? If so... Go to View->Page Source Highlight link hit Control(Or Apple, if yer on a Mac)-C Hit Alt(or Apple, if yer on a Mac)-L Hit Control(or...ah, you get the picture)-V Hit Enter It took you longer to post the comment "Yes, but one that has a life." than it did for me to get the proper URL. How did I know this? Am I some geek with nothing better to do? Nope...aside from the view->Page source bit, this is pretty standard cut-and-paste procedure. Ugh. BTW, you're right, URLs should be checked...but it's easy enough to get past this.
Heh, Shane...read my Slashname backwards. Hehehe...
:^) with that one. And that's not only the problem with Windows, it's the problem with MacOS, and also the problem with KDE & GNOME (although much less so with GNOME.) Too much reinvention of the wheel.
:^) outside of CGI and shell scripting type chores. And yes, I truly believe that a scripted desktop simple enough for Granny is possible. :^)
You've hit the nail on the head (pardon the pun
Granted, a number of folks write the software they're writing for fun. Some folks might simply want to re-implement some feature just to prove they can. Some folks might want to make what they feel is a more streamlined feature. Still other folks might be doing what they're doing as a class project. Perhaps they *must* re-implement some standard tool.
Nevertheless, I feel that KDE, and, to a lesser degree, GNOME, are ignoring what I feel (and many other folks feel) is one of the great strengths of UNIX or a UNIX-like platform: the existence of scripting languages.
True, languages such as Perl and Python exist on other platforms. Perhaps this is an unfair comparison since Perl, for one, was originally a UNIX-based language. But, quite frankly, these languages can exploit the underlying OS to an extent that seems impossible to someone raised on BASIC-based languages: you don't have to go PEEKing and POKEing about to do something, and, in many cases, a function in a scripting language nearly matches its matching C function.
Even better, languages like TCL can allow their code to be modified by the actual script itself (Perl allows this; some folks consider this to be a flaw, rather than a feature, since it presents a rather nasty security risk when quotes are used incorrectly in a script.) during execution. Substitution is one of those great things that I miss when I code in C.
Okay, so maybe this post reveals that I'm not the world's greatest (or most knowledgeable) coder. But, my point is this: before KDE and GNOME came about, TkDesk had gained a fair amount of notariety in the free software world. While I don't see myself reverting back to using TkDesk any time soon, I do rather miss a number of features on the system. When we killed it, we killed a lot of interest in scripting (yeah, THAT's sure to get the flames going!
*cough* xterm *cough*
:^)
:^)
:^)
/ends sarcastic coughing
Really, I'm currently using Mandrake 7 as my distro, and I didn't notice any GNU apps missing, nor did I notice any system calls missing. It's actually quite a simple procedure to open a terminal window and grep your heart out.
I do have to agree with you, though--there's little, if any, effort in the KDE & GNOME camps to exploit the awesome features of UNIX-like OSs. However, if you feel that Windoze/MacOS are utterly powerless, then I have strong doubts you have much experience with either OS (although I have to agree with you on Windows.
Most folks who trash MacOS are totally clueless about the OS. It's true: MacOS is no more stable than Windows; it's also true that until the latest Mach/BSD/OpenStep-based MacOS X that the system had a warped sense of humor when it came to multitasking. Quite frankly, though, I've run into a number of apps on other systems that like to do cute tricks like bumping up their priority and throwing modal dialogs up until a particular task is done--not exactly allowing for multitasking mahem!
While, like you, I'm hoping for KDE/GNOME-based tools that rival command-line tools, I'm also hoping for these systems to come CLOSER to MacOS/Win9x functionality--and perhaps surpassing this functionality.
One inherent problem in KDE/GNOME comes from the rather fractured nature of X11R6 interfaces:
:^)
:^(
No integration between basic desktop apps and regular apps.
On a Mac and on a Windows machine, it's possible to make folders on the desktop and have save/load folders default to the desktop. I used to hate Macs, but now that I'm forced to work with them quite often, I have to admit that this is a nice feature. It even inspired me to do the same under Windows.
Granted, it's not going to be possible to persuade everyone to use a GNOME standard dialog, a KDE standard dialog, or whatever comes along in three months. But it's a nice dream.
That all being said, the basic desktop formula is inherently flawed. I catch myself having to roll up windows WAAAAAAY too often to "get at" some part of the desktop. This is not only under MacOS, but also under Linux (I use gmc with Window Maker.) Quite often under MacOS I'll have a "Fast Find" application open, at least one printer queue open, and at least one QuarkXPress document open. Ugh. I'd like a ONE-CLICK solution, if that's possible.
And quite frankly, I'm not sure what the answer would be. Maybe a two-paned file manager with a shelf? I've always been a bit partial to the NeXTish Workspace paradigm, but I find it to be a bit flawed, too.
Perhaps, just to shorten this down a bit, it'd be best if KDE/GNOME based their desktop dirs not on a "Desktop" dir in the user's home dir, but on the actual HOME DIR. It may seem a bit nitpicky, but, considering how many X apps default to the HOME DIR, it stands to reason that the desktop should represent that dir instead of some dir right off of the home dir. While I realize I can symlink to dirs in my homedir, and while I realize this would require some COOPERATION (gasp!) between different desktop interface camps, I think it's a doable venture.
However, they probably won't on Caldera or SuSE--and won't work without a --nodeps --force on Slackware.
;^) then later, if I don't install the RPMs then try to merely use -ihv to install the RPM, I get failed deps and just have to use --nodeps --force.
The problem is in requiring a database on every stinkin' dependency on a system. If I were to, say, upgrade something by source before anyone with the know-how got around to making an RPM (I'm far too lazy to learn how to build my own RPMs--and I was scared off when I saw that weighty tome that is "Maximum RPM"
Also, one has to have a Red Hat-compliant system to build Red Hat-compliant RPMs (if anyone knows otherwise, please let me know.)
I suppose that *my* point is that there should be a more generic sort of package management system, one not dependent on a rigid compliance to a set of standards. This wouldn't be as hard to handle as it sounds; quite frankly, a lot of software authors use autoconf and automake to maintain source packages, and configure can find a number of deps--without having to depend on a rigid database system. True, configure isn't all that fast--but how many packages does the average person install in a day?
IF I EVER MEET YOU I WILL FIX YOUR LAWNMOWER FOR FREE
I am quite aware of the --force command-line option, as well as --nodeps.
.tgz of the darn thing. The RPM database is supposed to help make system maintenance a non-issue; instead, because the RPM concept is so flawed, it's more hassle at times than an actual help.
The fact is, different distros use different libs, different dir structures, etc. If you need to use --force --nodeps to install an RPM, then the package maintainer might as well have used a Slack package; in other words, just make a
Also, before you Debian fascists speak up, I'd just like to say that I'd like to have a setup that I *didn't* have to use a package manager, but could if I wanted to. Okay, that sounds like a newbie thought, but bear with me. Why not set up a packaging system that could, if deps fail, check the deps on its own? Open ld.so.conf and check those dirs, etc. It wouldn't be as impossible as it sounds, and would make installing from source almost a non-issue.
Well, that's my $0.02 for now.
Current distros were built more-or-less from scratch. While the package management and configuration management tools on a number of systems are impressive, I don't think they're anywhere close to what they could be.
A lot of folks grouse about how many distros there are right now. Quite frankly, though, I think that when Apple put together their own BSD system, they chose their name wisely: Darwin is indeed a wise name for a free-software project. Many steps have been taken in the evolution of free software, and some have fallen by the wayside due to disuse/poor design/etc. But the important thing to remember is that all the config managers and package managers out there got started by someone saying "this sucks; let's do something different."
The one thing I'd like to see change is the necessity for using a package manager to manage packages, and the risk of breaking config management tools simply by configing by hand once in a while (I've had problems with both on Red Hat/Mandrake/SuSE systems.) From what I've heard, it's kind of a necessity for Debian sytems to use the package manager to not break dependencies. Mandrake's terrible because all its packages have "MDK" in the name of the package; some Red Hat packages don't install at all.
What I'd like to see is something a bit like "alien" that can deal with rpms/potatoes/tgz/whatever, use traditional approaches to finding dependencies (if all else fails, find the required libs) and then use an "Encap"-like method of installing packages (i.e. use a seperate dir for every package, when convenient.)
Stow sounds a lot like Encap...Encap predates Stow by a year.