| 1 |
On Mon, May 4, 2020 at 5:48 PM Thomas Deutschmann <whissi@g.o> wrote: |
| 2 |
> |
| 3 |
> On 2020-04-26 15:46, Kent Fredric wrote: |
| 4 |
> > On Sun, 26 Apr 2020 14:38:54 +0200 |
| 5 |
> > Thomas Deutschmann <whissi@g.o> wrote: |
| 6 |
> > |
| 7 |
> >> Let's assume we will get reports that app-misc/foo is only installed 20 |
| 8 |
> >> times. If you are going to judge based on this data, "Obviously, nobody |
| 9 |
> >> is using that package, it's stuck on <whatever>... safe to remove" your |
| 10 |
> >> view is biased: |
| 11 |
> > |
| 12 |
> > I see this as more like what bloom filters get you, but in reverse: |
| 13 |
> > |
| 14 |
> > [...] |
| 15 |
> > |
| 16 |
> > - But now, instead of having "we don't know if anybody uses this", you |
| 17 |
> > *can* have a "we know for sure somebody uses this". |
| 18 |
> |
| 19 |
> But how does that information really help us to decide anything in the end? |
| 20 |
> |
| 21 |
> Case A, stats are showing 0 users: |
| 22 |
> |
| 23 |
> Like said, we can't know if this is true or if this package is only used |
| 24 |
> in setups where people don't report stats. |
| 25 |
> |
| 26 |
> |
| 27 |
> Case B, stats are showing x users: |
| 28 |
> |
| 29 |
> Now what? Package from case A could have similar users -- we just don't |
| 30 |
> know. Assume firefox has 1.000 users, chromium has 500 users and vivaldi |
| 31 |
> doesn't show up in stats. How does that help us? Would this allow us to |
| 32 |
> skip publishing GLSAs for vivalid because we assume nobody in Gentoo is |
| 33 |
> using vivaldi? Does it allow Python project to go forward pushing a mask |
| 34 |
> for removal in case vivaldi would depend on Python version, Python |
| 35 |
> project want to get rid of? Would this allow Gentoo PR to make a public |
| 36 |
> statement like "Firefox is the most popular browser in Gentoo, twice as |
| 37 |
> users as chromium"? |
| 38 |
|
| 39 |
I hate the saying "the perfect is the enemy of the good" but I think |
| 40 |
it applies here. |
| 41 |
|
| 42 |
You're of course correct that we would not have perfect information. |
| 43 |
But the thing about statistics is that you can still know some things |
| 44 |
based on a sampling of that perfect information. |
| 45 |
|
| 46 |
I would personally like to have data on whether users of my packages |
| 47 |
have certain USE flags enabled. Knowing that would allow me to decide |
| 48 |
whether its worth the maintenance burden of supporting features that I |
| 49 |
*think* are very rarely used. If instead the data showed me that 50% |
| 50 |
of users had IUSE=xyz enabled, I probably wouldn't consider removing |
| 51 |
it. |
| 52 |
|
| 53 |
I think your example of potential misuse of data is a bit over dramatic. |
Archives