OMG ... I've started a war!
Please believe that it was not my intention to do so. Feelings are
obviously running high on these issues, so I guess it doesn't take much to
set people off.
Here's my take on the situation with regards Fedora policy. Fedora (as a
distro) is still young enough to have major teething problems; let's not
start fighting over issues that are still work-in-progress. As for this
perception that those in charge at Fedora are overbearing Übermeisters
and that policy is set in stone, I'm sure that isn't true. Let's calm down
and discuss things without slinging mud at each other. Lest we forget, it
was these overbearing Übermeisters who gave us a rock solid, bleeding
edge, community based, distro in less than a year.
My reason for getting involved with the project is simple. Like most of
us, I'm an ex-Red-Hatter who migrated to Fedora. Where I discover I gap in
the tools (or amusements) I need, I look for the source and package it.
That's it. If I need bleeding edge enhancements in core components, I
chase them up, help out where I can, and try to push through an updated
release. I am filled with nothing but respect and admiration for those who
work on these projects (I know from experience how time consuming and
energy draining it is). I'm certainly not going to start arbitrarily
cutting people up over trivial issues - if that's how I come across, then
I'm sorry, and the best explanation I can offer is - when you've been
burning the candle at both ends (like I very often do) then your tone
comes off sounding, shall we say, a bit abrasive. It's not how I'm
thinking.
As for this fist fight between Micheal and Dag, let me just say that this
is a real storm in a teacup.
The amount of work that Dag must do to maintain his repo (single handed?)
must be frightening, and his semi-automated packaging/build system is
highly innovative (OK, maybe not perfect yet, but still brilliant).
(Incidentally, if you're reading this Dag, I would appreciate some info on
how you build your perl modules (ref: rpm macros and dependency checking),
and also your kernel module packages.)
I'm sure someone who works that hard without financial reward, surely
cannot be described as someone who doesn't care. I package for Fedora, but
I also package for Livna, but that doesn't mean that I am somehow being
disloyal to the Fedora project. It isn't about picking sides, or about
"them" and "us", it's about contributing towards something you believe in,
and which gives you a degree of satisfaction and pleasure. I don't feel
threatened by the existence of DAG-RPMS any more than I do about Livna, in
fact I'm glad of having more choice. That is, after all, what "community"
is all about.
When I first started packaging for Fedora, despite years of experience in
Unix, Linux and networking security, I simply didn't have a clue about
RPM, and didn't pretend to. I was a bit taken-aback by, what I perceived
as, Michael's abrasive nature. Having worked with him for the last 3
months, I can say that, although his tone is a bit dry, his attitude is
very positive, and I wouldn't have reached anywhere near the level of
competence I have now, without his input. Please do not mistake Michael's
tone as sarcasm or arrogance, since I'm sure that he, of all people, has
no interest in driving developers away from something he cares about so
passionately. If Michael has a fault, it is that he is a perfectionist in
the extreme, but that's his thing, and more power to him. There's little
wrong with striving to protect and improve that which you believe in, and
work so hard for.
So please, people, let's get back to talking shop, before I start getting
withdrawal symptoms from my daily fix of techno-jargon :)
Oh, and yes ... I vote for keeping %{buildroot} and ditching
$RPM_BUILD_ROOT. (Sorry - couldn't resist).
-
K.
* The debuginfo package for my brain is available on my website.
Please run it against gdb and forward any errors to the developer.
