Re: Installing software without a package manager

["Koree A. Smith" <koreesmith@gmail.com>]

I would have to slightly disagree.  But, I will admit that it's a
slippery slope.  Especially if you're installing source or other
versions of software that your system's package management already
has.  For example, I have installed spamassassin from source.  The
reason is to keep up with newer versions, as RHEL 3 is horribly
behind, but, I can no longer use up2date to update that package, and
everyone's bayesian filter data is locked into the version I have now.
 It would be a pain to roll it back.

However, I've installed Undernet ircd from source, and it's not an
issue.  RHEL3 doesn't have an ircd package.

I would agree that installing drivers or libraries, and not using your
package management is a bad idea.  Unless you *really* know what
you're doing.

This is just my opinion, of course.

Koree

On 2/23/06, Steven Pritchard <steve@silug.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 23, 2006 at 08:55:36AM -0600, NZG wrote:
> > On Tuesday 21 February 2006 7:04 pm, Steven Pritchard wrote:
> > > On Tue, Feb 21, 2006 at 06:16:45PM -0600, hbrhodes wrote:
> > > > i went to nvidia.com, and downloaded the appropriate shell script (or
> > > > whatever it was).
> > >
> > > *DO NOT* install the nvidia drivers direct from nvidia.com unless you
> > > want to royally screw up your Fedora system.
> >
> > Really? I admit that I don't know much about Fedora specifically, but this
> > works wonderfully on Debian systems, which are certainly less popular than RH
> > I'm suprised if NVIDIA doesn't release RPM's.
>
> I think you missed my point.  Installing *any* software without using
> your distribution's package management system is a Bad Idea.  Once
> you've installed something, nvidia drivers, perl modules straight from
> CPAN, anything using autopackage, whatever, you've compromised the
> integrity of your system.  Sooner or later, you *will* have problems
> as a result.
>
> Package managers are one of the things that make modern Linux (and
> some other Unix) systems so wonderfully managable.  In this case, I
> also think it is a lot easier to install the nvidia stuff from
> rpm.livna.org instead of straight from nvidia.com, but that's just a
> bonus...
>
> Steve
> --
> steve@silug.org           | Southern Illinois Linux Users Group
> (618)398-3000             | See web site for meeting details.
> Steven Pritchard          | http://www.silug.org/
>
> -
> To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@silug.org with
> "unsubscribe silug-discuss" in the body.
>
>


--
Koree A. Smith
--
koreesmith@gmail.com

-
To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@silug.org with
"unsubscribe silug-discuss" in the body.