[arch-general] Discussion on usage of [testing] repo - minimal requirements?

[Myra Nelson]

On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 19:38, Oon-Ee Ng <ngoonee.talk at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 25, 2011 at 12:19 AM, Leonid Isaev <lisaev at umail.iu.edu> wrote:
>> On (10/24/11 18:00), Karol Blazewicz wrote:
>> -~> On Mon, Oct 24, 2011 at 5:52 PM, Leonid Isaev <lisaev at umail.iu.edu> wrote:
>> -~> > Besides, one really doesn't have to enable testing in pacman.conf -- individual
>> -~> > pacman -U will do, imho.
>> -~>
>> -~> I've read that [testing] is all or nothing and you shouldn't
>> -~> cherrypick packages because you might break something.
>> -~> Somewhat relevant https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=127144
>>
>> That's where brain comes in handy :)
>>
> Yes, its a REALLY good idea to state that its okay to pacman -U
> individual [testing] packages on a public mailing list with at least
> some users who really don't know any better than to do just that.
>
This is the reason these discussions become useless, there are some
opinions that will never change. All the warnings are in place and as
I agreed with earlier "point that out to graciously" if need be. But
you never learn anything if you take the safest route all the time.
Learning is about experimentation. Without experimentation a person
becomes stagnant.

You can't tell someone you can't do that, or at least don't tell me
that or I'll bust my ass and break my neck trying to do what I've been
told not to do. I'm not sure but it may be that being born in the USA,
working in the oil field for 30+ years where the main incentive was
the line "can't get it can't stay", or maybe because I live in Texas
and am one of those obstinate know it all Texans. Better put was a
joke years ago by the comedian Red Skelton. It used to reside on a
bill board along I10 in South Texas. When asked how you can tell a
Texan, his reply was "Yep you can tell a Texan but you can't tell him
much".

The attitude about not telling some users who really don't know any
better than to do just that grates on my nerves. It might be a better
idea to put a better explanation on the wiki about what exactly might
happen to those who chose to use testing. Of course I'm one of those
who build there own packages from testing and trunk, keeps their own
repo for base and core, and uses pacman -U to install my packages. I
wouldn't have learned how to do that without making some mistakes,
doing a lot of reading, and asking a few "I really should have known
that" type questions. I wouldn't have learn how to fix my box when
it's broken.

I've now broken my own rule and made this personal on a list where
that shouldn't be done. I apologize to all those whom I didn't mean to
offend and did and for the excess noise on the list.

Myra Nelson
-- 
Life's fun when your sick and psychotic!