[news.eclipse.newcomer] Re: Ganymede fails after update

[Sean Burlington <sean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick Boldt wrote:
> I'm sure the Eclipse Linux Distros project [1] (or Ubuntu) would love to 
> have contributions, if you want to help them .deb'ify Eclipse.

debianising eclipse is a pretty big task

These are the eclipse packages currently available in Ubuntu

eclipse
eclipse-cdt
eclipse-common-nls
eclipse-efj
eclipse-gcj
eclipse-jdt
eclipse-jdt-gcj
eclipse-jdt-nls
eclipse-nls
eclipse-pde
eclipse-pde-gcj
eclipse-pde-nls
eclipse-platform
eclipse-platform-gcj
eclipse-platform-nls
eclipse-pydev
eclipse-pydev-gcj
eclipse-rcp
eclipse-rcp-gcj
eclipse-rcp-nls
eclipse-sdk
eclipse-sdk-nls
eclipse-source

and as eclipse grows that list gets longer


> I use MEPIS 6, ubuntu 6.06LTS, AntiX 7 & xubuntu 8.04LTS on my 
> machines., and still prefer to `tar xzf` my Eclipse installs instead of 
> dpkg or apt-get, but to each their own. :)

For me the tgz approach makes most sense

> If you decide you want to do more than hugs and kisses, consider 
> becoming a Friend of Eclipse [2].
>
> [1] http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Linux_Distributions_Project

I think that project misses the point to a large extent

Java hasn't been popular in the open source world - because it hasn't 
been open source

Although Eclipse has always been open source it has depended on Suns 
Java which until recently couldn't be included in Linux distros.

Now Java has been open sourced - Eclipse is available in Linux distros - 
but it will take time to build the user base in Linux - and without that 
user base packaging will be slower.

It's also apparent that Eclipse development often targets Windows - 
because that's where most of its developers are.

--

Sean