LXer: Debian project leader Stefano Zacchiroli and the controversy over Debian Multimedia
Published at LXer:
I came across Debian project leader Stefano Zacchiroli's most recent Bits from the DPL. The more interesting bits this month include a controversy over duplication between the Debian Multimedia archive and Debian proper. Stefano suggests that what package belongs where be worked out, or that Debian Multimedia shed its Debian name and move on. Surprisingly (to me anyway), Christian Marillat of Debian Multimedia didn't argue the point. He just said he's going to change the name of the project and the archive. Read More... |
If it wasn't for Debian Multimedia or whatever new name it might end up with, I for one would be looking for a new distro.
Without the packages that Christian Marillat provides freely in his own time Debian for myself would not be usable. The majority of my multimedia packages are from his repo including Mplayer 1.1, VLC, ffmpeg, flashplayer-mozilla, and about 100 other packages. Maybe Debian is just pissed that Debian as a desktop distro is damn near unusable without Debian-Multimedia. There is a reason there are so many Debian based distros, the majority of them come with things like firmware, drivers, and yes multimedia packages that aren't in the normal Debian repos. Most of the Debian based distros also have Firefox and Thunderbird, and many other packages that are not in the "official" Debian repos. If for some reason the Debian-Multimedia repo were to up and disappear I would definitely be switching distros. Maybe after all of these years of running Debian it is time to give Ubuntu/Kubuntu a try? Since when was Debian a Stallman/FSF 'free' distro? Get a clue either embrace dmo or find a way to include the packages in the "official" repos, or quite bitching. |
You can have a happy multimedia experience from a stock Debian install - admittedly not talking about the full monty but you can have music and video playback using the normal repos. Saying Debian is unusable without DMO is plain FUD. As far as Firefox and Tbird go, you know full well that Iceweasel and Icedove do the same job.
Debian actually aligned itself to the FSF principals since the release of Squeeze, dropping non-free firmware from the kernel. DMO will drop the Debian name - no big deal, get over it! I do agree that DMO is useful, no argument over that but it won't kill Debian if it vanished off the face of the Earth tomorrow. I take your point though that Debian should look at intergrating this into the standard repos - that seems to be a logical thing to do. |
all of the packages I have installed from DMO:
Code:
# aptitude search '?narrow(?origin(Unofficial Multimedia Packages), ~i)' 2) A lot of time the dmo version is newer 3) They just work, and work well. 4) Some of the packages are not available in the "official" Debian repos. |
Quote:
Newer isn't always better. I find most, if not all, stuff I install from the standard repos work and works well. True, some packages are missing from standard repos and would be good to be included but there are other ways to get them. |
nixblog how long have you been running Debian? You have only recently join LQ.
Christian's repo has been around for at least the ten years I have been using Debian. And probably even longer than that. Good luck finding apps like dvdshrink, k9copy, lxdvdrip, dvdrip, ogmrip, ffmpeg that is not crippled, and all the other apps that are in dmo. Show me a simple way to get all of the same apps. What other way other than trying to build the missing package from source is there? |
Woody was my first venture into Debian roughly about the time it was released. Before that I was using Redhat and FreeBSD (which I still use). Started using Ubuntu too for a few years until the bloat and bad decisions took over then it was back to Debian for the last couple of years but I could have easily gone to Arch, FreeBSD or something elsefor my desktop use.
Yes, the other way would really be to build from source but it's not really all that difficult to do and lets face it, If DMO vanished today I would say others would come along and take up the work - it may not be one source anymore but those packages would carry on, just as they do in a distro like Slackware. Don't get me wrong, DMO is pretty bloody useful when needed. I just wish some of that stuff could be incorporated into mainstream Debian too. If Debian asked Christian to drop the "Debian" part from the name and he's agreed then its problem over. |
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