Re: [gentoo-dev] ebuilds for kde3 beta etc.

[Mikael Hallendal]

ons 2001-12-26 klockan 03.44 skrev Daniel Robbins:

> Hallski, how many times in the past have I said "I'm giving Hallski the final
> decision on this one"?  I hope you'll agree it's been quite a few times.  In
> these times, the final decision has been given to you because I trust your
> expertise.  You have been given authority over the desktop aspects of Gentoo
> Linux, but branching CVS is something that affects more than just Desktop
> developers.  You should not be surprised that, in this particular case, I
> exerted my authority and made this decision.  It's certainly within my "job
> description" to make this decision.  And not to be rude, but whether or not to
> branch CVS is really not your decision.

I've never claimed branching the CVS is my decision. I posted is as a
solution to this problem. Wether putting beta KDE packages in Portage
should be my descision (if I've not been incorrectly informed about my
role in Gentoo). Since in the end I'm responsible for desktop issues,
even though Dan is currently responsible for KDE stuff.

> > Also, the "rm -rf /" example misses the point. The point is that if we have
> > lots of beta-stuff in Portage (available to the users) we'll end up spending
> > loads of hours supporting it (no matter how many signs of "Unsupported" we
> > write).
>
> The "rm -rf /" example is exactly the point.  Inform the user, and let *them*
> make an *educated* decision.  I trust the Gentoo Linux user base; we're not
> designing a distribution for monkeys here.  Taking control away from users is
> really not part of the Gentoo Linux philosophy.

I'm all for users being able to try out new stuff. And what I meant
about it's not the point is that if the user does "rm -rf /" he won't
come to us for support. If a user (after installing KDE3) notices bad
behaviour in various places it might take a very long time tracking it
back to KDE (thus spending lots of developer time).

Also, even _if_ users read the warnings and is willing to take the risk
it will end up taking lots of our time.

If we on the other hand say that we don't have much user support and
leave it at that it's all fine by me. But then this should be made
clear.

So, I'd say this particular issue is in the end my descission, wether or
not to branch the entire portage is _not_ my descision (alone), but I'd
say I should have a say in the matter. But that is out of the scoop for
this discussion.

Regards,
  Mikael Hallendal

-- 

Mikael Hallendal
Gentoo Linux Developer, Desktop Team Leader
CodeFactory AB, Stockholm, Sweden