Stephan Binner wrote:
On Wednesday 31 May 2006 00:09, Joachim Schrod wrote:
Am I now supposed to follow IRC, just to get my updates running?
You're mixing things. That was my answer to "what are you thinking?" question.
Yes, but even then. If you follow this mailing list, there is a dire need to know "what are you thinking". I agree that this mailing list is not the case to document how you come to your decision, but communication about the outcome of the decision process of updating would be advantagous. There has been no posting to any announcement list, or to the general users list that explains the situation. On www.opensuse.org, no information is readily available. At least it's not visible in the pages that are referenced as "Documentation", "News", and "FAQs". The Documentation / Installation page still references YaST repositories. Somebody who just comes to the OpenSUSE homepage and even looks at the second-level pages doesn't learn a thing about the new concept, the current problems, and the supposed solutions. In my opinion, the SUSE has a severe communication problem here.
But it would have been *very* nice for us mere users, if you would have coordinated that move with 3rd-party apt repository owners who supply services that _you_ were supposed to supply, but didn't. (That means, `you'
SUSE doesn't supply apt repositories and I don't know a reason why it should.
I didn't ask for a SUSE apt repository, I asked for a working update service and wrote that you should be interested in 3rd-party apt repositories for that reason. Please don't put words in my mouth. Why? Well, I think that's obvious, but if I really need to spell it out: We need a service that supplies an online update method that (a) works, (b) doesn't need minutes just for installing a package, (c) doesn't eat 100% of CPU cycles for longer periods, and (d) can be automated for productive servers. -- apt is such a method that works NOW. -- /usr/bin/online_update was such a method but has been discarded. -- Interactive usage of YOU is not such a method. -- ZMD/rug is currently not such a method. That's why SUSE should be interested in the available apt repositories.
About coordination, afaik the server admin of ftp.gwdg.de server (co)creates the apt repositories on the gwdg server. He was informed about the switch in advance and even started to mirror openSUSE build service repositories under ftp://ftp-1.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/repositories/ .
See, that's great information. Thanks for supplying that. (This is meant earnestly, and not sarcastic.) So you did what we asked for, and got flak for reasons beyond your reach. Why don't you tell that, and instead stop short at the harsh remark "that's not our beef"? My tip: The reception here of that news would have been *much* friendlier if you would have informed us from the start that you have been in contact with the GWDG owner (that's still Eberhard, ain't it?), he knew about the switch, and made a decision that you don't know about. Just like you did above; that was really appreciated. Communication with users is as important as technical work, and that's IMHO deficient in the current situation. Cheers, Joachim -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Joachim Schrod Email: jschrod@acm.org Roedermark, Germany