The removal of mplayerplug-in.

[Zbigniew Luszpinski]

> I think we should start a policy of not removing modules directly,
> but moving them first to zdeprecated for a month, and only then
> removing them. Anyone who is subscribed to the mailing list, or
> who runs lunar update at least once a month, will see that the
> module has been moved, and will have a chance to lrm it manually.

I agree with you that modules should be moved to zdeprecated.
I think zdeprecated should be another, optional moonbase without time limits like 1 month.
Those who use modules in zdeprecated should be allowed to use them as long as they want.
If anyone is willing to keep maintenance of them that's ok.
For example kde3 is worth maintaining for because it still compiles and works ok.
Actually I was using it and maintaining it when it was removed from moonbase.
So I'm forced to use kde4 I do not like because it is not well designed yet.

However if there is a module which does not compile with current modules on which it depends,
it will be not maintained by it's author, what's more already installed version can cause instability
and crashes of current web browsers - this is dead meat - the only right thing to do is to remove it.
You can not fix mplayerplug-in to work with current browsers.
mplayerplug-in's author said it requires major rewrite and this would take him one full week of work
just only to make it working with current web browsers. For him this is waste of time.
That is why he recommends his new project: gecko-mplayer which we already have in moonbase.

> Luckily I don't have mplayerplug-in installed, but I've had some
> problems in the past when I've started a lunar update and found
> that a module has disappeared. At that point the old moonbase has
> been wiped, so it can be tricky to clean up properly.

I had this recently with kde3 which disappeared.
I was using it and never planned to go to kde4 because I do not like it.
I wake up one morning and WTF I do not have desktop.
First I thought moonbase screwed up but then visited web git interface to find kde3 assassin.
I understand removing unfixable, dead module which crashes apps but killing kde3 which is still alive - this is digital murder.

I'm far away from removing modules if they compile and correctly cooperate with others (like kde3).
I only say no to dead meat without a single chance to bring it back to live (mplayerplug-in).

have a nice day,
Zbigniew Luszpinski
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