[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Marco d'Itri) wrote: >> > Also, you should think about this issue not just in the context of the >> > single package you are interested in but as a general policy. >> I was hoping to give that impression... > Then it should be obvious that it's a bad idea to add to the archive > multiple packages each containing hundred of megabits of data which are > only useful for a few users.
In my view, there's a problem with this argument. Fortunately, the core of a Debian GNU/Linux system consists of reasonably small packages. A large scatter notwithstanding, larger (source) packages tend to have less users (compare bash - XOrg - KDE). So it's not surprising that some of the packages with comparably small user base (games, scientific data) have a large size. On the other hand, if we want the best operating system in the world to also be great for playing games and for doing scientific research, we should care about these user groups, too. They might get larger finally, and even if they continue to be a small proportion, it's worth supporting them. I guess gamers and scientists are also similar in that they want the software to simply work, and not bother too much with additional installations. Therefore, providing apt-get'able packages for them is important. Even if we can't do it in our usual infrastructure. Regards, Frank -- Frank Küster Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich Debian Developer (teTeX/TeXLive)
