On Mon, Jun 15, 2020 at 9:50 PM Ben Cotton <bcot...@redhat.com> wrote:

> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Fedora-Retired-Packages
>
> == Summary ==
> All retired packages are obsoleted by `fedora-retired-packages`.
>

I'll not talk about implementation, there are more suitable people for that
here. But I'll voice my opinion that automatically retiring software from
Fedora users' computers is a sane and proper thing to do. If a package is
removed from Fedora, it should also be removed from users computers (during
FN+1 upgrade). Of course, we should allow users to keep it, if they want
it. But the default process should happen automatically, and users should
opt-out of automatic retiring, instead of opt-in. Only this way we can
build a secure and reliable operating system.

If only power users can opt-out from retiring a package (e.g. by editing
dnf.conf), I don't think that's a problem. Because even though general
users will of course be unhappy when an application they use get
permanently removed during system upgrade, they will be even more unhappy
when their system suddenly breaks in the future, either by unresolved
dependencies, or when the retired app/library causes the system to not boot
or breaks the desktop, because nobody at that points expects and tests
those software interactions. A general user can resolve a missing app, but
they can't resolve a broken OS. If they want to deviate from the system we
provide, it's reasonable to ask them to have certain technical knowledge,
instead of allowing them to shoot themselves in the foot (even unknowingly,
by not doing automatic retirement).

So on this level (and ignoring implementation), I'm in favor of this
proposal - make it automatic and allow opt-out (targeting just power users
for opt-out is fine).
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