getdeb-collaboration team mailing list archive

[João Luís <joao.pinto@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> I don't know what the improvements/changes are that are coming in 9.04
> that will make it possible to have a repository, so I will look at the
> questions in a way as the setup of the repository is the same as it
> now.
>
> Of course all the advantages are good things, that's why they are called
> advantages. I'll focus a bit more on the Disadvantages.
>
> 1. Updates will be recommended for all packages making hard to apply
> only specific packages updates.
> Yes this is true. It's a choice you make as a user for adding our
> repository.
The only thing we can do here to help is to provide detailed
instructions on how to use APT pinning to manage specific package
updates, this should be suitable for "advanced" users.
>
>
> 2. Faulty packages will have a wider impact.
> I would like to expand this one which makes it even "scarier". Updated
> packages will have a wider impact. Uhhh what you mean by that. If a
> GetDeb package requires an updated library of some sort, it could
> impact packages from the official repository.
> Let's say package GetDeb package X requires an updated library and we
> are able to provide this package.
> The library is also used by other packages we don't provide and some of
> them could fail with the updated library.
We can do some automation to help prevent this, doing reverse
dependencies lookup for every package before it goes into the archive,
packages that are a dependency for other packages not provided on the
repository should provide some strong indication of the risk and
require an extra level of approval.
>
>
> 3. Installing a package forces a repositories info update (to ensure
> you will get the latest version installed)
> That's just the way it works. People don't always get latest software
> from the official repository either when do an install. We can educate people on the site about
> this.
Meanwhile I came with another idea, we could have an option on the web
page to set at the user level that would include the refresh option on
the links or not (default should be force refresh), if the force
refresh option was disabled it would be up to the user to do the
manual update before clicking on the links...
>
>
> 4. Reverting to a previous installed version is harder (requires an
> unusual force version command or Synaptic)
> Why would you want to revert to an older version? If it's broken file a
> bug and we need to fix it. This can be prevented by better testing,
> which unfortunately we can't do due to the lack of resources.
Right, but if the app stops working you will probably want to revert
to the working version until the problem is fixed, but yes this is
nothing new, this problem applies to the official repositories.
>
> I would like to add a 5th disadvantage of moving to a repository.
> 5. Monetary loss.
> Although this is not a disadvantage for a user it's surely is a
> disadvantage for the project. Currently the project receives income
> from the advertisements displayed on the site, not just from people
> clicking on the advertisements but also the amount of impressions an
> advertisement gets. This money is used for paying the hosting provider.
> By using a repository you will not get as many returning visitors
> which means less impressions resulting in less income. They will add the
> repository and probably never visit the site again. I have the PPA of
> claws-mail added and I can't for the life of me remember when the last
> time I visited their site.
Yes, even with apt-url's, screenshots and localized descriptions which
will keep the website traffic for new applications install, there will
be a major decrease from the automatic updates.
I am very pragmatic on what relates to monetary issues, we are not
part or supported by any commercial entity, as such either we are
self-sustained, with a vital mirrors structure and other funding
activities like donations, subscriptions  as we do now or we don't ant
we will just shutdown.
We will  need to decide on what is best from a technical and end-users
perspective.
This is the good side of not having investors, shareholders or
contractual obligations :)
>
> --
> Peter van der Does
>
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>
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>



-- 
João Luís Marques Pinto
GetDeb Team Leader
http://www.getdeb.net
http://blog.getdeb.net