AppStream Ideas and Thoughts

[Éric Araujo]

Hello,

Le 16/02/2011 11:39, James Rhodes a écrit :
> Not trying to be disrespectful in anyway; that's just honestly what I
> see when I install and use a distribution, compared to say building my
> own using Linux From Scratch (in addition, the latter does not have an
> implicit package management supplied).
> 
> By all means, please enlighten me on the other work that goes into
> distributions.  If anything it'll give me a clearer view of the
> situation.

Not anyone is willing and able of building their OS from scattered
components.  Some years ago, I wanted to use a good OS made from free
software: I found such a thing in the Debian project.  I use it because
I don’t have the time nor skill to do all that the Debian developers do
for me:
- make sure each package is free software;
- test and debug packages;
- make sure each package is integrated with the system (configuration in
/etc, basic doc in /usr/share/doc, man pages);
- make sure packages work with each other;
- handle transitions;
- react quickly to upstream security patches;
- develop best practices and diffuse them upstream;
- select useful packages from the ocean of available choices.

In a nutshell, I use a Debian distribution because I trust it will be
free software, good and maintained.  I’m also interested in the wider
project, as a group of individuals working with and thinking about free
software.

Regards