Re: [GNU-linux-libre] third-party package managers

[Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli]

On Mon, 03 Jul 2023 21:56:50 -0400
Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org> wrote:
>   > with all due respect mon capitaine, i beg to differ - this is the
>   > most appropriate list to discuss these third-party package
>   > managers and their repositories; because most every distro
>   > distributes those programs - it is well nbeyond a GNU-only issue -
>   > this general topic began on this mailing list in 2016  
> 
> This is not an issue about handling free distros.  It is an issue of
> designing alternative ways for those package managers to work.
Both aren't mutually exclusive.

Here GNU can discuss how to design alternative ways for those package
managers to work, and it makes sense if here we wait while it's being
discussed and then discuss it FSDG distro need to use the solution
GNU came with.

As I understand FSDG distributions are also free to experiment with
different approaches for different programs.

Though as I understand we don't need to draw conclusions for all FSDG
distributions so it also doesn't hurt if people just present what they
came up with or try to share solutions between distributions.

If we need to draw conclusions for all FSDG distributions it would be
another story and people would really need to get involved and would
not really be able to ignore the mails about that.

> The approach to those languages that we would discuss here is too
> drastic to be used at all.  Therefore, there is nothing to discuss
> about those languages _here_.
>
> What we need to discuss about those languages' package managers is
> _not_ whether we can accept them, but rather _how to fix them_.

> If and when we have fixed them. we can talk with the developers
> of free distros about adopting our solution.  It won't be terribly
> hard, because we will already have done the hard part.
So the only thing we need to discuss here is what we can do in the
meantime. 

Is it OK if we keep them for now and warn users until some design work
is done by GNU? If some were removed, can we add them back?

Denis.

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