> Just putting packages in at random by random people 
> just doesn't make sense.

I agree. It was however about the idea of making "something more" out of the mini_livecd, which is already unique to SL. 


> You might not have noticed that you've already changed your mind
> three times in your e-mails as to what packages you want

It was not 3 times. It was only once, when I specified a different image viewer. The rest was QUESTIONS/OBSERVATIONS (e.g. is wicd worth, generally speaking? and in the context where SL is the only clone to care about WiFi?)


> and your list just keeps growing.

Sorry, it does not. It only tried to address an increased usability of the mini_livecd:
-- nedit, which was initially a SL addition, and now also embraced by TUV.
-- a lightweight/non-GNOME graphical file manager. Most likely/suggested, Xfe. I don't know of anything else already available for EL5.
-- a lightweight image viewer. Should be useful even when using the mini_livecd as an emergency tool. I normally prefer gThumb, but as the mini_livecd doesn't include GNOME, and as I was not very familiar with the alternatives already available in EPEL, I hesitated.

That's 3 applications (1 part of SL), or 4 packages (Xfe reqs FOX). Oh, should I change my mind and suggest to add on the mini_livecd Gcalculator? (It's already part of SL.) Is it so wrong to think of usability?


> That is the reason that we have atrpms and the dag repositories 
> installed by default.  They are not enabled by default, but ...
> You can also add the EPEL repository with one command
>  yum install yum-conf-epel
> and then you can install any package from EPEL that you want 
> with no problem at all.

Sorry, I _always_ run into problems at some point when mixing atrpms+dag+epel! This is why I _always_ disable them after getting the additions I need. 


> But asking for every package that you want to be in the main SL
> distribution is not the way to do it.  

I was _suggesting_, not asking. I was trying to make a point:
-- the mini_livecd /could/ become much more useful, almost a "complete" LiveCD, with little effort;
-- as it's about ~3 packages from outside SL (gpicview/gqview, xfe, fox) and ~2 packages part of SL (nedit, gcalculator), and given that Xfe (or whatever you prefer) is _not_ available from dag/atrpms/epel, I thought that you might be considering to add those ~3 packages to SL, for making them available to people who install from the normal media. 

Of course, I suppose that most of the packages that were added in the past to SL were a necessity for the several laboratories who were using SL or Fermi. Still, you also include specific SL customizations that were the sovereign decision of your (small) team, based on the fact that you've judged them a useful addition, even to a clone that normally tracks as close as possible TUV.

I'm sorry that my intervention only raised rejection.

Of course, everyone is free to make unofficial spins of the mini_livecd, but only the SL project has storage space and mirrors. That's the whole point. 

Best regards,
Radu-Cristian





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