Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Lastrite (part 1): KDE3-only applications that won't build when KDE4 is installed

[Dale]

Ben de Groot wrote:
> 2009/11/4 Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com>:
>
>> We have been having a discussion on the KDE mailing list over the last
>> few days and a couple of us Gentoo users have "issues".  KDE 4 is just
>> not ready quite yet.  I firmly believe it will be in the next few months
>> and with each upgrade it gets better.  As I wrote on the KDE list a
>> short time ago, some of us feel that we are having KDE 4 forced on us
>> when it is not ready just because KDE 3.5 is not being maintained.  I'm
>> not pointing at Gentoo here because this appears to be coming from
>> upstream.  Gentoo can't provide packages when upstream is not updating.
>>
>> What my point, and the point from others is, we need KDE 3.5 to be in
>> the tree until at least KDE 4.4 or even better KDE 4.5 is released.  I
>> have faith that KDE 4 will be ready and fully usable by that point.
>> Surely this can be done somehow.  If not, KDE needs to rethink how they
>> do this next time so that it can.  It's not like KDE is new on the block.
>>
>> Just to be clear, I don't think this is a Gentoo problem but a problem
>> with how KDE is handling the releases.  It sounds like KDE has dropped
>> the ball on KDE 3.5 a little bit early.  I'm not a dev so I could be
>> wrong here.
>>
>
> I agree with you that KDE4 is not yet up to the standards of stability and
> usability we are used to in KDE3. However, both KDE and Qt upstream
> have de facto dropped support for their respective version 3. This means
> nobody is looking at security issues for those old versions. We cannot be
> expected to do that job for them, and do not want to maintain versions
> no longer supported upstream with possibly unknown security bugs.
>
> As you say, it is indeed an upstream problem, which forces our hand.
> But to extend a hand to those users who want to stick with the old versions
> and are willing to take possible security risks, we have started the kde3
> overlay. And we are happy to help "lowly" users like you to get the skills
> to co-maintain those packages in the overlay.
>
> As it is now, we have no Gentoo developer who is committed to maintain
> both Qt3 and KDE3, and we feel it is irresponsible to leave those
> unmaintained in the tree.
>
> Cheers,
>

< lowly user again >

Is it possible to just mask and maybe keyword KDE 3?  Maybe do a news
item as to why it is being done?  That way people like me that don't use
overlays can still keep KDE 3.5 but it requires us to unmask them. It
would be just like we have to do to use a new program that may have
security issues or bugs but just in reverse. 

I mention because I have already downloaded Mandriva and plan to install
it as a temporary fix if needed.  I think I can suffer through Mandriva
for a couple months while this gets sorted out.  I'm planning to install
the same for my brother.  I would like to install Gentoo but he's not as
geeky as me. 

< back to my hole again >

Dale

:-)  :-)