Re: [Libreoffice] Kicking off 3rdparty packages

On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 11:01:13AM -0700, Tor Lillqvist wrote:
> > > IMHO, there's no reason to include old versions of third-party packages in
> > > LibreOffice proper.
>
> Please, are you talking about third-party source code
> - included in the LibreOffice source code (git repositories),
> - source code downloaded as part of the build process
> - binaries from either of those included in a binary package? Or all of these?

All of them: binaries come from source code.

> > Up-to-date software can also be used on old Unixes / Linux systems without too
> > much pain.
>
> Sure, as long as you know what you are doing

Should LO be including 3rd party software to facilitate the work of people who
don't know what they are doing ?

> But I do think that somebody running some random old Unix box would prefer
> to get an all-inclusing LibreOffice package.

Who are these people ? Do they really exist ?

From a quick glance at the source code, I've counted exactly 3 old Unices
supported in LibreOffice: Solaris, OSF/1 and AIX.
All of them can at the bare minimum use software packages managed by pkgsrc,
with dependencies and versionning.

Of these three platforms, one of them is pretty much dead: OSF/1 was also known
as Digital Unix and Tru64 and ran on Alpha systems.
After the sale of Digital to Compaq and the sale of Compaq to HP, Alpha systems
were discontinued. According to HP, the last one was sold in 2007.

The official HP Unix is HP/UX, and is currently not supported by LibreOffice.

> Instead of complex advice like "additionally you should install foolib from
> this site, but be careful not to let it overwrite the binary incompatible
> build of foolib from this other site that you might have already"

What exactly are we gaining here by not doing that ?
All live platforms have to be proactive in managing software; if you decide
to freeze some old version of a third-party library or program and include
it in LO, this software will suffer from bit-rot, accumulate uncorrected bugs
and security issues.

You may try to patch it yourself, but this will increase your work and become
unsustainable after a while.
In the end, LibreOffice will become a worse product.

-- 
Francois Tigeot