[Rule-list] Introduction

[Geoff Burling]

On Wed, 17 Apr 2002, Marco Fioretti wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 16, 2002 10:36:21 at 10:36:21AM -0700, Geoff Burling wrote:
> > Hello --
> >
> > After about a month of lurking, I felt it was time to introduce myself
> > to the list. My interest in RULE is not only to keep the promise alive
> > that Linux will run ``on all sorts of old hardware", but to use it as a
> > test-bed for developing light-weight Window Managers.
> >
> > I'm also a part-time contributor to the AfterStep WM project, which meets
> > many of the criteria that Marco set out in his email not too long ago.
> > .....
>
> Geoff,
>
> first of all, welcome aboard!
>
>
> Thanks for the every bug signalled in the installers. Apart from that:
>
> 1) thanks also for the "deeveloping light-weight WM" part: it's going
> to be one of the most important subsystems for the desktop use of
> RULE, so do come in with any suggestion you might have (or contact
> that part of me wearing the hat of coordinator for the WM subproject
> offlist if think it's better)
>
After I completed the slinky-0.1.9a install, I attempted to install XFree
in order to build a AfterStep rpm on a RULE system. In doing so, I learned
that X is a *very* large application, & expects a number of packages that
are not always obviously related, viz.:

perl
freetype-2.0.3-7
XFree86-libs-4.1.0-3
XFree86-xfs-4.1.0-3
Mesa-3.4.2-7

Looking at the source code for XFree86-4.1.0, I see that there are about
15 perl scripts -- associated with xterm, items in the extra directory, or
used with fonts -- so the dependency on perl has some justification.

However, what I have trouble understanding why Mesa needs to be included
in XFree. I don't use 3D effects in my window manager on a daily basis.
It appears to be one of these k-rad kewl effects that someone insists on
adding to a software project, which ends up getting so entangled with the
rest of the code that all of the users end up being forced to upgrade
their hardware . . . even if they aren't going to use this new feature.

In short, it's the kind of feature bloat I feel RULE should be fighting,
if I understand the charter of the group.

</rant>

Also, thanks to Martin & everyone for troubleshooting suggestions. Since
I'll have time over the next few days to look more closely at the
setup, I'll be doing that, & complete test-report.txt for Benoit to
work with.

> 2) We have very concrete and important reasons to run linux on old HW,
> but RULE has the potential to be cool and trendy too: there is not
> that much power difference between a 1995 PC and a 2002 PDA...
>
> Back to work now...(don't forget to insert any relevant AfterStep data
> in the application database!)
>
Geoff


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