Notices

from what i can gather, its app managers silly default reaction to any kind of install failure from missing dependencies.

remember, if one try to install a package via a downloaded deb, app manager will not attempt to look up dependencies...

what we are looking at is a multi-faceted problem.

1. throwing everything into extras-devel results in less eyes for testing as people stay away because they risk updating something that works with something that do not, and thats important to them. as there is no way to say, in app manager, that this is a app that one do not want to upgrade from extras-devel, while another is, one get to issue 2.

2. because of issue 1, and people being lazy bastards that dont want to take the time to apply for access to extras-devel (or wathever), we have non-repo debs floating around of alpha/beta grade software that people want to try out. but because the managment have in their eternal wisdom decided that its best to have everything on extras(-devel), especially with source code, they have made the manual install of debs via app manager near worthless, by having it not check and take care of dependencies.

3. app manager giving errors that have nothing to do with the underlying cause of the error, resulting in confused newbies making confusing posts on forums...

sure, the intention of the policy may be good, but right now someone needs to slap app manager silly and give people a bit more info, and a lot more fine grained control. and no, having to dive into apt-get config files do not help, if so one could just scrap app manager fully and point everyone to apt-get and dpkg...

Ive never understood, since I got my first tablet (have had all 3) why app manager doesnt check for dependencies on manual installed .debs.

its to make more people use repos (and by extension, extras), especially in combo with uploading the source so that even if the original dev ups and leaves (like we had with webkit-eal) the source is still there for others to pick up and continue with.

sure, its a noble intent. but as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

and in this case, it seems to turn into some kind of support hell all to often...

The tablets have been my only experience with linux, and Im no dumbass when it comes to computers, but Im convinced that alot of peop,e in the linux community feel the need to make things harder than they need to be.

The main advantage of Tear above bootup speed is it's great scroll and overall performance due to it's superb responsiveness. If in time as it gets heavier and slow in interaction then it loses it's edge and raison d'être. In that case a second 'lite' version might be apt but hopefully we won't come to that.

In my opinion its already damn near perfect, for myself, the only issues I have are login issues on a couple sites I frequent. Other than that, all I would as for is an ad blocker...but given the speed it operates at even on ad heavy sites this isnt necessary, just a want...cause I couldnt give a flying **** at a rolling doughnut about damned acai berries! LOL

thing is, the deb system and repos work, when there is a large pool of people handling the creation of debs and there is a similar pool of ready source code to made debs from.

on the tablets, this is not equally true, and so people come up with ad hoc solutions and beta software that they want to get people to test before putting it into the general software pool.

basically its a problem of fine grained control. if you open your tablet to extra-devel, you get the whole deal, warts and all. you simply cant say that your only interested in the devel version of tear or some other interesting but not "must work" important.

or you can, but that means having to dig into some config files that have no friendly ui...

In fact is easy to explain. The only user installable packages (e.g. programs) are in user/other section. Everything else like the libs above is not DIRECTLY installable but instead is available for dependency resolution. That's all. Of course it will install fine with dpkg.

OK... let me try to clear up some of the confusion here...

First off, the "Incompatible application package" usually stems from one problem: the section field of the package. Packages that the user normally wants to install, and packages that the application manager shows you are in some user/* section. Libraries, and packages that you really don't need to install by themselves, things just depend on them, are not in a user/* section, so the application manager throws the very uninformative "Incompatible applicaiton package" error. [edit]Looks like Bundyo also explained this in the post above... I just took too long to type this

Second, installing applications on the tablets IS a "one-click process" if that application is in a repository. You've probably noticed this when installing other application: just click, wait, and you've got an application. That's more than I can say for ANY windows program. (Usually, run the installer, click Next, check that you agree, click next, verify install location, click next, choose where you want shortcuts, click next, wait for install, click next, choose to see readme or run the application, and click finish.) I would hardly call this "one-click". The problem on debian arises when you try to install a package you downloaded as a deb. In this case, the dependencies will NOT automatically be filled (for package safety reasons, I believe... not sure if this is configurable anywhere...) Generally, though, applications are in repositories, and dpkg will throw an error if there are missing dependencies that you just need to apt-get install.

Finally, all these problems can be avoided with the tearbookmarks package with the help of some advice I've been trying to avoid giving: enable extras-devel. If you do this, the package will show up in your applications list. However, beware! Do NOT upgrade anything it says is upgradeable, or install anything else. After you install the bookmark plugin, DELETE extras-devel. It's really only meant for developers, and unstable/not-ready-to-be-released packages, and some crazy stuff can happen if you keep it enabled.

Having said all this, I'm only holding off putting the bookmark plugin in extras for two reasons: one, it's incomplete; two, I'd like to merge it with the bookmark manager; three, I'm waiting for tear to be in extras. In order to be complete, the bookmark manager has to support folders. I'm working on this code, but having a bit of trouble with it... stay tuned! I still need to work with Bongo a bit on implementing some of his code, and getting a package with his bookmark manager and my plugin together. And, of course, this package is useless without tear, so there's no point in having it in extras if tear isn't there. It would only confuse people.

Qole: Could you maybe stick the tasknav plugin in your repository? That should clear up some of these issues, without having to put it in extras.

If I'm wrong or oversimplifying anything here, please feel free to correct me! Learning is an ongoing process

Have any details been released about what browser will be with fremantle? If its something other than just microb, they will be hard pressed to beat tear!