[Linux] Helix Code / gnome

[Luis Villa]

Danny-
One of my best friend works for Helix, and is in charge of their Debian 
packaging, so I think I've got a pretty good bead on that. Basically, 
they add helix for a few reasons: 

1) It ensures a smooth upgrade. i.e., mygnomething 1.0 will always upgrade 
cleanly to mygnomething 1.0-helix, which will always upgrade cleanly to 
mygnomething 1.1 or mygnomething 1.1-helix. In contrast, if you had 
mygnomething and helixmygnomething, rpm and deb would be unhappy (though 
deb can handle this type of thing much much better than rpm can.)

2) Most of the packages are slightly different, in that they are compiled
against newer versions of the gnome libraries than the "official" gnome
releases themselves are. While in most cases this shouldn't make a
difference (since the libraries are dynamically linked anyway) upgrading 
/everything/ and differentiating them from "normal" releases helps ensure 
that this really is the case. To see the example fo the very small 
differences I'm talking about, get the "normal" gaim and the helix gaim. 
Fire them up and they look exactly identical. When you resize, though, 
the newer libraries and like a two-line code change make the behavior of 
the text-entry window vastly different (and superior, IMHO.) 

3) Consistency. Some of the packages really are seriously modified 
(particularly libraries) and do really, really need to be tagged as 
"helix." In order to make all their packages consistent, then, they tag 
everything that they release as "helix."

4) Bug-tracking. If they released it without identifying it as "theirs," 
if something was screwed up in the package, people could go to any of 1/2 
dozen different places to report bugs. By making sure that it says 
"helix" they increase the odds that helix will actually get a bug report 
so that they can fix it.

Anyway, that's the answer (I think;) I can't claim to speak for helix, 
but they are good guys even if their business model is deeply, deeply 
flawed :) and I'd be happy to answer any questions if I can. 
-Luis

On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Danny Rathjens wrote:

> Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 15:06:20 +0000
> From: Danny Rathjens <dkr@hq.mycity.com>
> To: imagine@mailx.dialtoneinternet.net
> Cc: mystik <mystik@earthling.net>, Linux <linux@flux.org>
> Subject: Re: [Linux] Helix Code / gnome
> 
> And why does helix just rename the existing rpm packages to
> add _helix_ into the filename?  They haven't seemed to even modify
> most of the rpms I looked at in any way other than renaming it.
> At least when mandrake adds their mdk to existing rpms they do stuff
> like add bzipped man pages or something useful.
> 
> imagine@mailx.dialtoneinternet.net wrote:
> > 
> > Yeah, I agree it is definately quick and easy but it does make me worry.
> > It's basically an interface to installing RPM packages but at least with
> > RPM's you can verify where they come from, but with this someone could
> > have you installing something that threatens the security;
> > and since you aren't going package by package you don't even know what you
> > have on the system so when an Exploit fix is posted you don't think you
> > need it and there you go another user on the system uses Helix to get
> > root. I do observe that Helix is tightly wrapped in the installation, but
> > I think rpm -ivh is just as useful, even for the Windows user making the
> > switch. I really felt nervous upgrading with it at work. The new
> > icons are nice and shiny though...it's cool.
> >  - Josh
> > 
> > On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, mystik wrote:
> > 
> > > I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned it but
> > > the automatic install/upgrade for gnome is great.
> > > I installed it last week and It is a vast improvement.
> > > You can just go to the gnome site and install it
> > > through the web selecting packages and all.
> > > The auto install/upgrade is for most Linux OSes
> > > form Yellow Dog - SuSE - LinuxPPC To Solaris.
> > > Not bad at all.....
> > > ~bert
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Linux mailing list
> > > Linux@flux.org
> > > http://www.flux.org/mailman/listinfo/linux
> > >
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> 
> -- 
> struct Programmer/Analyst 'Danny Rathjens' {this.place = "MyCity.com";}
> "Believe nothing, merely because you have been told it, or because it
> is traditional, or because you have imagined it." -- Guatama Buddha
> 
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> 

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