[CentOS] firefox 1.5.0.5 packages

Phil Schaffner Philip.R.Schaffner at NASA.GOV
Tue Aug 1 13:46:18 UTC 2006


On Mon, 2006-07-31 at 22:44 +0100, Philip Wyett wrote:
> 
> I would say it is much preferred to keep with the official upgrade path
> and install CentOS updates only.
> 
> I understand people use dag for freetype for certain circumstances, but
> it is not the best method for an enterprise OS as freetype is a core
> library. For long term, keep the the base OS wherever possible. If you
> wish extra features for freetype, let me know and maybe I can roll a
> base + these features for centosplus.

Point taken, and for server systems I would completely agree.   Stick
very close to core EL OS.  No CentOSplus or any other extras unless
absolutely necessary.  However, for an individual desktop/laptop it is
often desirable to have additional functionality beyond what the
strictly-enterprise system has to offer - thus the reason for the
existence of CentOSplus and other 3rd party repos like Dag's or
Karanbir's.  Adding more packages to CentOSplus is highly desirable, but
so are coordination, cooperation, and compatibility with other reliable
repos.

No slight to the dedicated CentOSplus maintainers/packagers, but I see
no dramatic difference between it and a fine trusted repo like Dag -
which has served to add functionality for Red Hat, Fedora, and EL-
compatible systems for years.  This is not to say that I have never
broken anything with Dag or other 3rd party packages - the old "if you
break it you get to keep all the pieces" applies. Fixes or workarounds
are generally forthcoming when problems are reported on FreshRPMS,
RPMforge, or CentOS lists; and in this case using the Dag freetype and
CentOSplus firefox packages seems to have circumvented the problems
others have encountered.

RHEL-derived distros make a fine stable base for those Red Hat
aficionados who wish to avoid the Fedora roller coaster ride, and
judicious choice of repos and use of protectbase/includepkgs/exclude in
yum config files is always highly recommended, but for a fully-
functional desktop workstation or home system (particularly if you want
multimedia capability), I find sticking with the Enterprise packages is
not a viable option.

Regards,
Phil





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