Re: [gentoo-dev] FHS compliant KDE install and multi-version support

[Marcus D. Hanwell]

Dale wrote:
> Marcus D. Hanwell wrote:
>> Dale wrote:
>>> Philip Webb wrote:
>>>> 080907 Jorge Manuel B. S. Vicetto wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> ignoring FHS ... are not valid solutions to this problem.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Why ?  Who is demanding FHS compliance & for what reasons ?
>>>> Gentoo is not like other distros & sometimes needs to find its own
>>>> way.
>>>> Given the well-known problems with KDE 4.0 & (still) 4.1 ,
>>>> I'ld like to be able to have the option of multiple versions
>>>> available.
>>>>
>>>> I really do appreciate the hard volunteer work the KDE team donates
>>>> & have nothing but thanks to them all, but shouldn't your priority be
>>>> to get KDE 4.1 into 'testing', so that users can actually try it out ?
>>>> There's also 3.5.10 , which has been released, but isn't in Gentoo
>>>> yet.
>>>>
>>> As a lowly user, I would like to keep KDE 3.5.* for quite a while
>>> and will most likely not switch until at least 4.3 or better is
>>> out.  Even that mostly depends on how many "issues" are still left
>>> out there.
>> The slotting of KDE 3.* and KDE 4.* was never a question - these will
>> always remain slottable. The question is whether we really need to
>> keep slotting of minor KDE versions in the new 4.* line, i.e. KDE 4.1
>> and 4.2 slotted on the same system. I think the benefits of an FHS
>> compliant, non-slottable (with other KDE 4 minor versions) install is
>> the best thing for our general user base.
>>
>> I also see how we can have slots outside of FHS for developers, power
>> users and the ones who just like to be different ;-) These can be
>> maintained in an overlay and use different slots than the ebuilds in
>> the main tree. It is no real issue to be able to run a slotted KDE
>> 4.2 install alongside an FHS install of KDE 4.* and so FHS installs
>> can be successfully slotted with other kdeprefix installs too.
>>
>> This helps to make the normal KDE install much simpler to maintain
>> with less gradual build up of cruft over the years (multiple older
>> slots the user is no longer using). It also brings us into line with
>> the FHS compliant Qt 4 ebuilds  and other desktops such as Gnome. The
>> purpose of these posts was to solicit further feedback before things
>> are pushed to the main tree.
>>
>> Most other distributions install KDE into the main /usr hierarchy,
>> that is the way upstream intends KDE to be installed and I think it
>> will work well for most users. I do think Gentoo is about choice and
>> so having overlays with ebuilds in a different slot seems to be the
>> best solution we can offer given the constraint of slot invariance.
>
> To try to make my point clearer, if I can set a USE flag or some other
> config so that I can have both KDE 3.* and KDE 4.* installed at the
> same time and select which one to login into, I'm cool.  That option
> doesn't have to be available forever but long enough for KDE to get
> some of the "kinks" worked out.  I'm talking maybe 6 months to a year
> which will vary depending on the speed KDE gets things worked out and
> fixed?implemented.
Your point was perfectly clear and I thought I had been clear in that 
option is present and will continue to be so for as long as KDE 3.5 is 
in the tree. That could be years, depending mainly upon whether upstream 
continues to provide security fixes in some form.
>
> I'm not hard to please by any means but I do like changes to not be a
> overnight thing.  I'm to old for things to "soak in" in a rush.
> Thanks
I think we all know that most people will try KDE 4 whilst maintaining 
their old KDE 3.5 desktop. I only use KDE 3.5 for testing things now but 
still run quite a few KDE 3 apps in my KDE 4 desktop session. I hope 
this reply makes it very clear that slotting of KDE 3.5 with with KDE 4 
is not something that is going away. You will have at least two options 
(KDE 3.5 or KDE 4), some people might prefer more (KDE 3.5, KDE 4.0, KDE 
4.1, KDE 4.2, KDE 4.3...) but I think that is overkill for most (and 
probably always was).

Thanks,

Marcus