[Bf-committers] Static linux version, drop?

[Reuben Martin]

On Sat, May 23, 2009 at 10:48 PM, Campbell Barton <ideasman42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Reuben Martin <reuben.m at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Check it, yo!: Campbell Barton was sayin:
>>> On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 7:47 PM, Alex Fraser <alex at phatcore.com> wrote:
>>> > On Fri, May 22, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Campbell Barton <ideasman42 at gmail.com>

>> I think I'm speaking for most people on the forums (although some may disagree
>> with me) when I request to take down any Linux builds, static or dynamic, and
>> replace them with some documentation on the concept of package repositories.
>>
>> There are many people trying out linux in place of windows for the first time
>> who have no concept of repositories. They come stumbling into the forums
>> looking like lost sheep, wondering why the linux package they downloaded from
>> blender.org doesn't just install itself like it would in windows world. And it
>> takes quite a while to get them to understand the linux package management
>> paradigm. And it keeps happening over and over.
>>
>> Maybe you could still have the linux builds, but try to bury them a bit behind
>> documentation explaining and encouraging the use of distro repositories.
>>
>> -Reuben
>
> This is the first time I have heard a request to remove linux builds completely,
> If there are problems with our linux builds failing we need to deal
> with this. - Including python in blender2.5 should help - possibly
> statically linking OpenEXR and OpenAL too.
>

Asking to remove completely was probably premature. But I don't think
there is much, if anything in the documentation about repositories. We
have people being told by peers that Blender works better on Linux,
then they immediately install Linux, download the packages from
blender.org, and from there they can't figure out what to do with it
and are lost.

I think the noob ratio of people downloading the Linux packages from
blender.org is very high, because experienced users will load it from
their repository or build it from SVN.

-Reuben