mouss wrote: > Matt Kettler a écrit : >> >> AFAIK, *VERY* few distro packages contain anything from tools. >> >> That said, I personally wonder why anyone would use a distro package for >> something that updates are often time-sensitive. (ie: SpamAssassin, clamav, >> etc). >> > > While I try to avoid pre-packaged binaries, I prefer pre-packaged sources. > > some reasons: > - system specific options are already there (no need to tell the sw > where to install its files). > - to manage dependencies automatically (at least to avoid dll hell) > ...
I agree there are some upsides to distro packages. However, there are downsides: -You get the all the screw-ups the distro maintainer made because he didn't understand the purpose of new files added to the package (ie: the addition of init.pre caused a lot of distro maintainers to install this file in /usr/share/spamassassin, or not at all) -And all the "Extra features" they decided to bundle in, such as SARE rules they liked but you might not... -And all the "mixed version" issues because for some reason the distro maintainer doesn't want to upgrade to the next minor rev and only backported the security fixes, bypassing accuracy fixes that don't result in dependency changes. -And miss out on utilities the distro maintainer decided he didn't want to include. Admittedly some of those downsides have their own upsides, (ie: the extra features might be ones you want..) but they're things to consider about packages. I myself am completely turned off by distro packages of SA. They seem to hurt more often than they help compared to source-tarball installs. At least with the tarballs I know what's in them matches what Justin, Theo, Dan and the SA crew talk about. Sure you can check with your distro, but I like getting my support here and I like knowing I'm using a version that matches their code-base exactly.
