[Yum] yum criticism

[Michael Stenner]

Nost of your technical points (not quoted here) have been addressed by
Jay, and I think most of them are non-issues (meaning the feature you
want is actually present).  I'm going to address something else.

On Thu, Nov 16, 2006 at 02:17:14PM +0100, Thomas Hartwig wrote:
> I know these ones have discussed already some times, but what me makes 
> angry are the answers of the developers (very simplified):
> 
> - This feature would break the system of the user.
> - Why should a user want to use this, since he has not written linux.

I'm not sure I fully understand your point (there may be language
issues, so forgive me if I misunderstand you) but I think I know what
you mean.

The authors of yum (mostly Seth, but I and most of the rest fully
support him) have deliberately chosen a design philosophy which
encourages clean, safe management.  There are very few "override"
options and very few ways to work around problems elsewhere (like
packaging problems or repo problems).  This encourages power users to
do it the "right way" and it helps keep novices from getting into
trouble.  

In the days before yum and apt were hot on the rpm scene, people
instlled by rpm directly.  It was very very common to see on mailing
lists and irc channels, that at the first sign of trouble, some
know-it-all would say "just do 'rpm --force' or 'rpm --no-deps'",
leading people into untold badness.  We don't do that.

You're welcome to disagree with this philosophy, and I'm very sorry if
you find it insulting.  You really shouldn't.  Yum utils and yum
plugins allow to anything you want, really.  Anything goes in a plugin
or util.

If yum (or anyone else) feels like yum is pair of blunt-tipped plastic
scissors, well, you're probably right.  Feel free to use a razor blade
if you wish, or add on the whirring-saw-blade-of-death attachment from
yum-utils or -plugins.

					-Michael
-- 
  Michael D. Stenner                            mstenner at ece.arizona.edu
  ECE Department and Optical Sciences Center                520-626-1619
  University of Arizona                                         ECE 524G