Patrick Volkerding on the Tech Show!

Ruhar · Post by **Ruhar** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 6:45 pm

Chess wrote:Getting back to the topic of questions to ask Pat, here are some more:

I'd also like to hear his comments on other distros out there: What they do well, what they don't too that well, etc. Does he mess around with any other distros to get a feel for what other people are doing?, etc...

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:17 am

Wally Balljacker wrote:It sounds like you've never even given Slackware a chance. Most people that complain about Slackware's package management tools have never even tried to use them.

Actually I have, I tried swaret and slapt-get and I wasn't impressed.

Wally Balljacker wrote:In the past couple months, the only time I've run into any sort of dependency issues was when I compiled MPlayer. Of course, I simply went to LinuxPackages.net and grabbed whatever packages I needed.

See, even that, FOR ME, is too much work. Right now I use two Linux distros and one BSD, on SUSE and Fedora I add a community repository and type "rug in MPlayer" or "yum install MPlayer" and it's a done deal, on OpenBSD you don't need to add anything, you just type "pkg_add -iv mplayer".

Wally Balljacker wrote:For the the most part, I'm of the opinion that dependency checking is more of an encumbrance than anything else.

It's been over 2 years since I last had any issue with it.

Snarkout wrote:
Wally Balljacker wrote:For the the most part, I'm of the opinion that dependency checking is more of an encumbrance than anything else.
Done poorly, I'd agree. Done well, it's magical.

Exactly, because RPM must be magical to me, because it seems to just work really well for me, or is this heresy!

Post by **Patrick** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 5:52 am

Tsuroerusu wrote: Exactly, because RPM must be magical to me, because it seems to just work really well for me, or is this heresy!

You age definitely shows in the above statement.

Memories off RPM hell are still in my mind.

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 6:01 am

Patrick wrote:
Tsuroerusu wrote: Exactly, because RPM must be magical to me, because it seems to just work really well for me, or is this heresy!
You age definitely shows in the above statement.
Memories off RPM hell are still in my mind.

LOL, well, I've experienced the Windows equivilant called DLL hell, but also I think that time has solved certain issues, and I rather judge things by the present and not the past.

For example, when Chris and Bryan of The Linux Action Show, tried a week in KDE, I know that Bryan judged it by looking at KDE 3.4 and not the latest 3.5.x version. That really pisses me off, because that's the same kind of crap that Microsoft pulls outta their ass, they take Red Hat Enterprise 2 or 3 and compares it to Windows Server 2003.

So Pat, what do you think of RPM today? I personally don't have a problem with it.

Post by **Patrick** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 6:08 am

Tsuroerusu wrote:So Pat, what do you think of RPM today? I personally don't have a problem with it.

The package format is fine. It's not any different than any other binary package. The key lies in the system that does the dependency checking and updating. Suse with Smart is fine. Zero issues. It's definitely progressed since the days of RH 5.0.

Gomer_X · Post by **Gomer_X** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:31 am

Snarkout wrote:
Wally Balljacker wrote:For the the most part, I'm of the opinion that dependency checking is more of an encumbrance than anything else.
Done poorly, I'd agree. Done well, it's magical.

Agreed. The reason I HAVE a computer is to keep track of complex crap I can't keep in my head all at once. Dependency tracking falls into this category. That's what my computer is for.

Most of the dependency problems I've seen come from people doing stupid things they've been warned not to do. Usually it involves subverting the dependency resolver or using incompatible repositories.

Gomer_X · Post by **Gomer_X** » Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:40 am

Patrick wrote:
Tsuroerusu wrote:So Pat, what do you think of RPM today? I personally don't have a problem with it.
The package format is fine. It's not any different than any other binary package. The key lies in the system that does the dependency checking and updating. Suse with Smart is fine. Zero issues. It's definitely progressed since the days of RH 5.0.

RPM has never resolved dependencies. That's not its job. It tells you if you don't have a dependency installed, but it won't get the dependencies for you.

TankCatNinjaFish · Post by **TankCatNinjaFish** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:40 pm

unfortunately no one in open source thinks applications should be distributed as self contained bundles. GUI installers are all but nonexistant.

Questions for pat (volkerding, that is):
whats with the dobbs head and why does it have to do with slackware?
why lilo?

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:58 pm

TankCatNinjaFish wrote:whats with the dobbs head and why does it have to do with slackware?

Patrick was inspired by the Church of the SubGenius when he created Slackware.

"The central belief in the Church is the pursuit of Slack, which generally stands for the sense of freedom, independence, and original thinking that comes when you achieve your personal goals. The Church states that we are all born with Original Slack, but that Slack has been stolen from us by a worldwide conspiracy of normal people, or "pinks". The Church encourages originality and frowns on actions seen as pinkness, which happens when one bows down to authority and the accepted limits of society. Popular Church phrases supporting these goals are "The SubGenius Must Have Slack" and "Fuck 'Em If They Can't Take A Joke.""