Source code: bring it BACK

[rogerdugans]

I have been using Red Hat operating systems for a number of years- since Red Hat 7 is was my primary linux distribution.

I have always felt that the advantages it has outweigh the disadvantages.
Pro: easy install, fairly complete selection of installed software, stable, good support and online resources, flexible, customizable.

Con: proprietary changes in organization and kernel that don't match up with more standard methods, bloat

Fedora continued to be my distro of choice through Core 1 and 2.

A few things became more difficult: mainly getting a console booting pc, but that was pretty minor. I could deal with a couple of text edits to gain full control of the machine again.

But now I have to jump through a few hoops just to get a proper kernel source tree installed ????

Look, it takes me about 30 or 40 minutes of actual WORK to get everything configured where I like it not counting any time involved downloading software/updates.....

I am extremely annoyed by the idea that I have to build my tree myself- and if I update the kernel, I have to also waste time in finding the correct source and patching it to the proper points.

I still have FC2 installed on one machine, but FC3 has been removed from any of my computers, and I will no longer reccommend it to anyone, I am afraid.

If I wanted an OS that did what IT wants instead of what I want, I could use Windows XP.

[james_in_denver]

Jump through hoops to get the kernel source????

Hmm, I just download my kernel source from http://www.kernel.org/ (tar -xvzf linux-versiont.tgz ; cd linux-version, make xconfig ; make ; make install) ??? Isn't that the normal way to install a kernel from source?

That's where the Fedora project gets their kernel anyway.

And the source RPMs are available for download. I think the distributors realized that most Fedora users didn't need all the source code for all of the packages. And since most people download their distro from the net, including all of that source code would just increase the size of the download, when most people couldn't care less about the source code?

Maybe I'm wrong, these are just my thought's and opinions.

[foolish]

There's solid logic behind the decision to remove the kernel source. Everything needed to build modules are in the kernel package itself. Those who want to compile their own kernel will get it from kernel.org and use the traditional method anyway, and there's no reason you shouldn't build kernel packages like you build any other packages.

Read the release notes, it's all explained there. And search the fedora-devel mailing list archives for the reasoning behind it all. And I say this: It won't change any time soon.