[packaging] Meeting next week to discuss trusted third-party repositories

Yfrwlf swiftpaw22 at gmail.com
Fri Dec 19 16:39:13 PST 2008


> I'm not aware of any distribution that supports 0install.
>
> Basically, I'm not interested in 0install unless some distro decides
> it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and replaces their
> package manager with it.
> - Dan
>   
That's the problem, the distros don't want users having the freedom to 
install whatever they want, it's part of their business model.  If they 
want to play that game and leave their packaging systems disfunctional, 
users can switch to other distros or install or patch software on top of 
their distros which will fix that problem.  Distros can't stop open 
source software from progressing as much as Microsoft can stop it.  
Right now, Zero Install does exactly this, by allowing itself to be 
installed on existing distros easily users can have the freedom to 
install Zero Install packages regardless of their distro.  All you have 
to do at that point is maintain the Zero Install packages for the more 
popular distros.

Don't get me wrong though, I too feel what already exists should ideally 
be replaced, it's silly having a package management system working on 
top of a package management system, but if that's what it takes to get 
them to listen to Linux users who want more freedom and for Linux users 
to get access to any and all the software they could ever want, so be it.

Hell, maybe making a distro that uses nothing but ZI (after it is made 
compatible with programs requiring root access) for it's package 
management is in order.  Recreate Linux using a truly modular package 
management system, then have "distros" based on *that* which at that 
point would be mere preloaded ISO software bundles.  Sounds good to me..


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