[Koha-devel] [Koha] Current, Simple-to-install, Installed LiveCDs/LiveDVDs are okay ( was Re: Avoid LiveCDs/LiveDVDs)

[MJ Ray]

Paul <paul.a at aandc.org>
> A .tar is somewhat universal; .deb, .rpm, are o/s specific.  Why limit the 
> scope?  Why not concentrate on the best possible quality of an ubiquitous 
> .tar?

Because the LiveCD discussed is built on an OS that uses deb files.

I like the tar and I've done a lot of work on it, but the
ready-integrated and easy-to-upgrade deb is also very worth having.

> >that is a good thing for non-technical people with a production environment.
> 
> Please, how many "production environments" are run by "non-technical 
> people"? (or at least without access to "technical" people?) Is Koha 
> destined for amateurs only? Even my local, rural, very small, public 
> library uses the municipal IT department personnel (they're on SirsiDynix.)

More than we'd like to think!  Maybe yours is different, but trying to
get central IT department personnel to install LMSes for real testing
(not the sanitised vendor-provided demos) is often very difficult.

Then other departments will sometimes try to block use of Koha - "it's
not on our supported software list" or "it's not available from our
approved suppliers" are two examples of reasons for not buying Koha.

I'm pretty sure that Koha is so good that sometimes the librarians do
it themselves, then present the IT department with something like
"tough, we're already using it, so under official policy, you must
support it"...  at least twice recently, the co-op has been hired
to... errr, how shall I say...  normalise(?)  an installation by
"non-technical people".  And it's basically worked fine.

Anyway, the rest of the thing is deeply non-technical and I've
written enough about release cycles and long-term support in the
past, so I'm leaving this here for now and returning to coding.
Hopefully the candidates for release manager and maintainer will
have more to write on that!

Thanks!
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/