On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 08:58:09PM -0400, Chris Snook wrote:
Jesse Keating wrote:
> Back in December, I had made a change that blocked kernel-devel packages
> from winding up in the install media for the Fedora spin. I don't
> recall getting any push back at the time, but I've gotten at least one
> angry comment since then. So I'm putting it out for more discussion.
> Do we feel that the kernel-devel (5~megs) should be in the install
> media?
Yes please. There's always new hardware we don't support yet, so some
people will need to build drivers just to get online and access the
repos. If we ship it on the install media, it's much easier to
distribute code that you're reasonably confident will work on a new
install. If people have to hunt down matching kernel and kernel-devel
rpms, it's a moving target for people working on these device drivers.
I'm not saying we should bend over backwards for out-of-tree drivers, but
this is precisely the scenario that determines the first impression for
someone trying this "Linux" thing on their shiny new bleeding-edge box,
and it's pretty easy to accomodate.
Erm... if this is the first time someone is trying a shiny new "Linux" thing
on a bleeding edge box, and they have to grab a kernel-devel package and
build drivers _themselves_, then they are obviously smart enough to run
'yum install kernel-devel'. Somehow I think your example is slightly off.
I don't know many Linux newbies that know 1) that they need to build a
driver, 2) what driver to build, and 3) what packages they need to build it
all without knowing how to install anything.
<jedi>
These are not the people you are targeting. They know enough to not require
kernel-devel on the install media. You can move on to finding some other
use case that makes sense.
</jedi>
josh