Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: [RFC] Splitting desktop profile to KDE and GNOME

[William Hubbs]

On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 12:07:08PM -0400, Richard Freeman wrote:
> R??mi Cardona wrote:
> > Le 26/10/2009 22:58, Richard Freeman a ??crit :
> >> Gentoo is about choice.
> >
> > No it isn't. Gentoo is about empowering users, giving them the ability
> > and tools to _change_ the distro to _their_ needs.
> >
> > Gentoo does _not_ cater to all the possible needs.
> >
> > This is somewhat off-topic, but it irks me every time I see/hear it, so
> > there.
>
> Well, I'm not sure I see any contradiction.  When people say that gentoo
> is about choice, it means that we should give the end-user flexibility
> whenever it is feasible.  Of course that doesn't mean that there should
> be a lunar-lander-in-a-box use flag.  However, if KDE 4.2 includes a
> lunar lander module we should in fact add such a flag for the benefit of
> those of us who don't own space programs.

Agreed.  However, I think the discussion is around whether we should enable
the lunar-lander-in-a-box use flag by default and where it should be
enabled by us if we do enable it.

Since profiles override IUSE defaults, if we enable the flag in the
profiles, this means that it will be enabled for all packages that have
the use flag, regardless of whether they are KDE related, unless the
user disables the flag in make.conf or package.use.

On the other hand, if we enable it with IUSE defaults at the
package level, it lets the user decide whether or not they want it to be
enabled for their entire system by editing make.conf.

Imho the profiles should enable only use flags that are necessary for
running that profile and allow users and package maintainers to control
the rest.

-- 
William Hubbs
gentoo accessibility team lead
williamh@g.o