Tom, On Fri, 01 Aug 2003 07:18:45 -0400 Tom Allison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Wouldn't it be possible to utilize /opt for big packages (open office, > > mozilla, KDE, Gnome, Java) and still leave /opt for system > administrators? > > I kind of like the idea of putting what you need for the basics in > /usr and the cool applications in /opt and spread it around a little > bit. I can't speak for Debian, because I've only been using it about 6 months, but most of the big distributions used to do exactly what you described - there would be /opt/gnome, /opt/kde, /opt/openoffice, and so on. What happened, especially as the projects became more mature, is that a lot of cross-dependencies developed - Galeon used Mozilla, and lots of things used GTK, for example. Then the "tidy" directory structure became a horrible mess for compile time configuration, the $PATH variable stretched out for miles and required maintenance, and basically the whole tidy structure only served to hide dependencies and relationships that actually existed. Better to toss everything in /usr and forego human-readable browsing for the sake of an efficient system. Trust in the package manager to keep track of things for you. --Todd -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
