Subject: Re: Advice on downloading software please

From: Brian <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 20:45:47 +0100

On Sat 27 Aug 2016 at 09:15:50 -0500, limpia wrote:

> On 2016-08-27 08:55, Steve Greig wrote:
> >I would like to download a programme (opencpn) onto my laptop which is
> >running debian. It is so long since I have done this I can not
> >remember how to start. Also I am not sure which version of debian I
> >have which seems to be relevant according to the website. Instructions
> >are given at xxxxxxxxx [1].
		   ^
		   |
		   |
What happened here-| ? The link has disappeared, Censorship at work?

> >Any advice would be very  much appreciated. Steve
> >
> >
> >Links:
> >------
> 
> You can use 'uname -a ' to see what version of Debian
> you have.

Really? Positive?

>  However, you also might want to read this:
> https://wiki.debian.org/DontBreakDebian
> 
>  It is not a good idea to be using ubunto ppa's like
> the instructions say on the link you posted.

If it works, it works.

>  As far as installing Debian packages goes, there is
> plenty of documentation on that:
> https://wiki.debian.org/DebianPackageManagement
> 
> If you really need this program, and the source code
> is available, you can follow the instructions here:
> https://wiki.debian.org/CreatePackageFromPPA

If it works, it works.

>  But it still something, personally I would not
> recommend.

Even if it works?

---

From: Joe Pfeiffer <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 17:34:33 -0600

> What happened here-| ? The link has disappeared, Censorship at work?

limpia appears to have edited the URL out of his reply, since he is
recommending not using it.  It is still there in the original post, as
one would expect.

>> You can use 'uname -a ' to see what version of Debian

More usefully, no, uname -a won't give the Debian version.
/etc/debian_version should contain the correct version, if it hasn't
been modified on your site.  As the documentation for base-files says,
however, the contents of your /etc/apt/sources.list and
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/* are a more reliable way to determine it.

>> the instructions say on the link you posted.

And if it doesn't, you're screwed.

>> https://wiki.debian.org/CreatePackageFromPPA

And if it doesn't, you're screwed.

>>  But it still something, personally I would not

It is a really good idea to check the contents of the PPA, and make sure
it doesn't bring in nonstandard versions of system libraries.  I don't
remember ever having been burned by a PPA specifically, but I did once
have to spend a day cleaning stuff from debian-multimedia (long ago
enough that it wasn't deb-multimedia yet) off my system.

I frankly have to worry about somebody who is asking for help installing
from a PPA then being able to clean up if it goes sour.

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2016 09:25:13 -0400

> from a PPA then being able to clean up if it goes sour.

+1

I'd say more, but maybe enough said--well, I'll be brief / cryptic--to 
recommend that a probably (?) novice do something in violoation of the 
policies (of Debian) meant to protect his system seems counterproductive.

---

From: Daniel Bareiro <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 20:31:50 -0300

> What happened here-| ? The link has disappeared, Censorship at work?

Maybe some intermediate processing performed by openmailbox.org,

Kind regards,
Daniel

---

From: Curt <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2016 09:47:03 +0000 (UTC)

> Maybe some intermediate processing performed by openmailbox.org,

There is no [1] on this end (you know, at the bottom of the page where
it says "[1] Intermediate processing brought to you by openmailbox.org. At
your service for all your censorship needs").

-- 
"I always say to people, ‘No one earns $100 million. You steal $100 million.’
People earn $10 an hour. People earn $40,000 a year. ‘Earn’ means work. Okay?
It doesn’t mean steal, which with these vast amounts of money, of course you
steal them."
— Fran Lebowitz

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2016 17:10:32 -0400

> What happened here-| ? The link has disappeared, Censorship at work?

Just to provide a datapoint, the link showed up fine in the copy of Steve's 
post that I received.  And, as a test, here it is again:

http://opencpn.org/ocpn/download.

---

From: Brian <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2016 00:02:59 +0100

> http://opencpn.org/ocpn/download.

As another datapoint:

  https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2016/08/msg00884.html