[rt-users] RT and the Perl Dependency Nightmare...

[Ben Goodwin]

My thoughts below aren't necessarily what I believe; rather, they're to
invoke additional thought on this discussion.

While the fact that RT relies on modules rather than reinventing the wheel
is a Good Thing, there are benefits and drawbacks.  Exploring them again is
probably a good exercise even if it's been done before - RT and its users
continually change.

For example, in the single distribution scenario, not only would
installation be easier, but general support would be easier as well; instead
of 1000 permutations of versions and bugs, you have 1.  Imagine if Firefox
required a large number of modules that are largely maintained by others.
Would it be as successful?

It's surely an interesting debate that's almost religious in nature (like
the "which linux distro is better" question) and has obvious pro's and
con's.  Creating a single package would surely not be easy to do, either.

To Ruslan's point - maybe someone does need to spend the time to make (*and
maintain*) a robust (hopefully somehow multiplatform) package to cater to
the crowd who, for whatever reason, can't run RT in its current form.  Such
a task is not to be underestimated, however.  We'd be dealing with different
distributions, operating systems, and architectures.  In any case, this
isn't a small or easy conversation.  Right now what it all really comes down
to is each individual's needs and the best way to satisfy them.

Also remember what Best Practical is from a company standpoint.  They don't
make and sell a commercial product - they create open source software and
draw revenue from things like support, training, and special customizations.
It's a different model than a lot of people are used to.

	-=| Ben


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ruslan Zakirov [mailto:ruslan.zakirov at gmail.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 6:55 PM
> To: Les Mikesell
> Cc: Ben Goodwin; rt-users at lists.bestpractical.com
> Subject: Re: [rt-users] RT and the Perl Dependency Nightmare...
> 
> Now, you all just complain, but you can take Paulo's RPMs and update
> specs to new versions and publish it, can't you? Yes, you can. Change
> the situation.
> There is ebuild for Gentoo. There is deb packages. Look into it, I
> think it's good examples, you can learn from it.
> 
> Ask your bosses to fund such activity, it would be good feedback for
> using RT free.
> 
> It's open source, but you have alternative way sales at bestpractical.com