Les Mikesell wrote: > On Mon, 2006-03-06 at 12:39, Andy Green wrote: >>>> Right on spot. Everything installation was a bandaid over inflexible >>>> package management post installation to the point that the users felt >>>> that just selecting everything would save them a lot of potential pain >>>> later. >>> The part about saving time is still probably true. Who wants to >>> be in the middle of something and run into missing programs >>> needed to complete it? And if you don't have at least one >> Hum well if the things are really needed for automated tasks they should >> be dependencies, and so always be available. > > No they shouldn't. You can run any command from any other > command without anyone needing to know that you might > try that. Unix-like systems are supposed to be a set of tools, > each including all the others. > >> If you mean you suddenly >> discover that you needed some utility or app on a larger scale then you >> can just yum it in. > > If you are doing something interactive, don't mind taking a > break and starting over, and have a good internet connection. > >> I definitely like that better, that the machine is >> at least tending towards just having what it needs installed. > > Yes, for 'production' scenarios where everything you do has > been planned and tested that makes sense. It doesn't make > sense for the machines you use to develop improvements for > those machines and need to try things no one has tested > yet - or if you work with scripts developed elsewhere that > are likely to invoke programs you haven't installed. > >>> machine with 'everything' installed, how are you supposed to >>> find out what is available and if you like it? >> Lots of packages can be installed and not really discoverable from the >> system menus. If a commandline utility goes in /usr/bin then unless you >> know the name you will likely never be aware of it (I guess apropos >> might help). So "install everything" so I can try things is really >> "bloat me" with many things I will never know I have. > > OK, how do you try out those things? If you are content with > the packages from years ago, why install a new system at all? > >> yum has some cool features. Try >> >> yum search java > > That was fun but the gazillion packages that scroll by turn > out to not include the one I'd actually want... > This is exactly what everyone has been trying to tell you all along. You want ONE package so you install everything. That way you would be sure to get the "the gazillion packages" that you don't want. -- David
