im also not sure what support is like in other distros but i commend the kubuntu volunteers who man that irc channel for support as well as those who help with development. are there any other distros that provide support like this?<br>
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<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 7/2/08, <b class="gmail_sendername">Jon Aquilina</b> <<a href="mailto:eagles051387@gmail.com">eagles051387@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">one thing must not be forgotten though. in regards to pkging stuff for the ubuntu variation once someone like you and me you upload it for someone higher up on the chain to check and upload to the servers. so basically someone is checking what someone else has packaged.
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<div><span class="gmail_quote">On 7/2/08, <b class="gmail_sendername">Tim Cutts</b> <<a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:tjrc@sanger.ac.uk" target="_blank">tjrc@sanger.ac.uk</a>> wrote:</span>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"><span><br>On 2 Jul 2008, at 6:06 am, Mark Hahn wrote:<br><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">I was hoping for some discussion of concrete issues. for instance,<br>I have the impression debian uses something other than sysvinit -<br>
does that work out well?<br><br></blockquote>Debian uses standard sysvinit-style scripts in /etc/init.d, /etc/rc0.d, ...<br></blockquote><br>thanks. I guess I was assuming that mainstream debian was like ubuntu.<br></blockquote>
<br></span>It's sort of the other way around. Remember that Ubuntu is based off a six-monthly snapshot of Debian's testing track, which is why Hardy looks a lot more like the upcoming Debian Lenny than it does like Debian Etch.<span><br>
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">interesting - I wonder why. the main difference would be that the rpm format encodes dependencies...<br></blockquote>
<br></span>The difficulty is that many ISVs tend to do a fairly terrible job of packaging their applications as RPM's or DEB's, for example creating init scripts which don't obey the distribution's policies, or making willy-nilly modifications to configuration files all over the place, even in other packages (which in the Debian world is a *big* no-no, that's why many Debian/Ubuntu packages have now moved to the conf.d type of configuration directory, so that other packages can drop in little independent snippets of configuration)<br>
<br>I have seen, for example, .deb packages from a Large Company With Which We Are All Familiar which essentially attempted to convert your system into a Red Hat system by moving all your init scripts around and whatnot, so once you'd installed this abomination, you'd totally wrecked the ability of many of the main distro packages to be updated ever again. Oh, and of course uninstalling the package didn't put anything back the way it had been before.<br>
<br>Like you, I tend to use tarballs if they are available, and if I want to turn them into packages I do it myself, and make sure they are policy compliant for the distro.<br><br>So this, while not a statement in favour of either flavour of distro, is definitely a warning to be very wary of what packages that have come from sources other than the distro itself might do (which of course, you'd be wary of anyway for security reasons).
<div><span><br><br>Tim<br><br><br>-- <br>The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome ResearchLimited, a charity registered in England with number 1021457 and acompany registered in England with number 2742969, whose registeredoffice is 215 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE._______________________________________________<br>
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</span></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br></span></div><span class="sg">-- <br>Jonathan Aquilina </span></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jonathan Aquilina