Menu spec update (summary; closure?)

[Mike Hearn]

On Thu, 23 Mar 2006 08:33:47 -0600, Jeremy White wrote:
> I think idea #3 is a neat idea (I'm a big fan
> of having all files isolated into their own
> /opt/<blech> directory), but I just don't see a practical
> road from here to there.  And even if #3 is championed,
> a short term resolution is needed while we're waiting
> for it to be adopted.

I'm a fan too, but right now so much stuff assumes /usr is where
applications are installed simply altering the menu spec won't turn the
tide. It could be fixed for menus, but as soon as we get into non-XDG
things like DBUS, Bonobo, KParts, man, info, autoconf etc they all default
to looking for things under /usr. Doesn't matter for us (Codeweavers) but
matters for a lot of other stuff, and 20% solutions are icky.

There have been proposals that'd let us have software in dedicated
directories around the FS (from network mounts, usb keys etc) in ways
that don't require patching lots of stuff, but as of today they aren't
implemented and there's no general solution that works everywhere :( So
I'd not really support #3 because it creates yet another XDG specific
thing, even though the real problem is larger and there are more general
one-hit solutions.

Given that /usr vs /opt is currently a lost cause in the general case, I
guess Waldos solution is the simplest resolution for now.

(this is the point where I get reminded I have outstanding bugs to fix ;)

thanks -mike