[Digikam-users] Re: Compiling Issues (still no joy)

[Mark Greenwood]

On Tuesday 21 Dec 2010 00:16:13 Peter Shute wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Mark Greenwood [mailto:captain_bodge at yahoo.co.uk] 
> > Sent: Tuesday, 21 December 2010 10:27 AM
> > To: digikam-users at kde.org
> > Subject: [Digikam-users] Re: Compiling Issues (still no joy)
> 
> > So when a release of Kubuntu comes out, you get a snapshot of 
> > what the state of everything was at the time that version of 
> > Kubuntu was released. Sometimes it's good, sometimes (9.04) 
> > it's truly awful. You've been unlucky to discover one of the 
> > bugs that slipped through the net pre-release. If nobody has 
> > reported this bug to Kubuntu, or there's nobody there to work 
> > on it, or it requires a major update to new versions of 
> > libraries, nothing will get done about it. Have you raised it 
> > as a bug on launchpad? If not, you can't complain that 
> > there's no fix available. Get involved, Linux is a two-way street.
> > 
> > So, the reason a simple deb with all the necessary stuff 
> > isn't available is (a) because, probably, nobody has reported 
> > it, and (b) because nobody has felt it worthwhile to spend 
> > *their own spare time* doing it. As you've found out, it's 
> > not simple and it's not fun. 
> 
> This is all very well, but it isn't made clear to users before they install and commit to software. 

With respect, it's abundantly clear to anybody who does some research before comitting to a platform to work on. In this specific case, a quick Google of 'Digikam Nikon D90 Ubuntu' brought up plenty of references to the speed problem. Even the most knowledge-less newbie could have drawn some conclusions from that - like maybe not to bother trying Ubuntu.

> One can spend many hundreds of hours using something like digiKam, 

Yes, so you surely test and research it well before comitting to it? Would you commit to using some commercial software that costs hundreds without spending a week or two testing a demo version to see if it fitted your needs?

> only to have it all go wrong one day. 

Only if you've upgraded blindly and without testing to see if it breaks anything, or backing up so you can roll back if it does. This is basic stuff, something anybody using any OS should be aware of.

> That's when users face problems like this, which they aren't qualified to solve, and wouldn't have got involved with if they suspected what was coming.

I don't mean to sound rude. We make our own decisions and we should make sure they are informed ones, then we won't find ourselves moaning about how things weren't made clear to us.

Mark

> 
> Peter Shute
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