[SGVLUG] FC repository searches

[Jeff Carlson]

Dustin Laurence wrote:
> Out of curiosity, what were the symptoms?
...snip...

Basically, install Debian via Knoppix 3.8 or 3.9.  So that is a pretty
old version by now.  Then do apt-get dist-upgrade because I figure
there's a lot to get up to date.  After that, X wouldn't start or KDE
wouldn't start or something like that.  This was a laptop so I pretty
much only ran it with desktop software in mind, not really much for a
server.

> In some sense, RH is the classic and greatest experiment in how fully a
> company can be totally committed to making money for it's investors (as
> the law more or less mandates for a publicly traded company) and still
> stay within the rules of our community.  If RH fails, the model that
> will win will be more like that of Novell.  I respect Novell's plans and
> need to differentiate itself, but RH is far more committed to our ideals
> (as opposed to our software) than Novell is.  So I want RH to win on
> it's own terms.

This may sound really weird coming from me, and probably isn't even what
you mean, but I have said this before and I'll keep saying it.  If "win"
means the competition packs it in and goes home, then I never want RH to
"win."  I never want Novell to "win."  I never want IBM, Sun, or HP to
"win" in that space either.  Like I said earlier in this thread,
competition breeds innovation.  Competition is good.  Without
competition, a producer becomes complacent.  They think their product is
good enough and that everybody will just buy it because it's what they
offer, end of story.  Does that sound like any other company we know?

> I am about 93% sure they will.  Beyond the free development work for
> RHEL, I think (hope) they realize how disastrous their loss of mindshare
> was when they ended RHL.  I wasn't suggesting they'd drop Fedora, only
> that if they feel it's competing too strongly with RHEL then they'll
> *very* likely do something to make it less competitive there.  The
> publicly stated reason will be different and plausible (almost certainly
> that it needs to be "more bleeding edge" for "enthusiast desktops" and
> "community demand"), of course.

I, for one, was never sure what the big deal over the end of RHL was.
Basically, Fedora replaced it 100%.  I never called RH for tech support,
even though the companies I have worked for have had that as an option,
so the fact you can't call RH for help with Fedora is a no-op for me.  I
never saw a reason for all the outcry.

> Hmm.  Is it?  We started with how to find the packages in Fedora, which
> is practically useful (I always have a toolbar link to the package
> browser for any distro I'm running, that's how important it is to me),
> and now we're discussing (among other things) what Fedora's purpose and
> direction is.  That's sort of useful if you want to decide whether to
> run it at home, no?  I think there is *some* practical value here.

Sure, I'm just thinking of the times on another list when I have gotten
so tired of a thread I stopped reading all the messages with that
subject of from particular participants.  Not often, but I wouldn't want
someone to start thinking reading what we write in the future is a waste
of time because of what is going on here.  As Shrdlu says, "plonk."