[PyKDE] PyQt 4 on openSUSE

[Joachim Werner]

Hi all,

SUSE has been shipping with PyQt/PyKDE installed in the default system for 
quite a while. For PyQT/PyKDE 3 this was a no-brainer: The HP printer tools 
are installed by default and need them, so we have to install PyQt/PyKDE (or 
actually kdebindings3-python that contains them) by default, too. ;-)

Now I have requested the addition of PyQt v4 to the upcoming openSUSE 10.2 
release. But I have met some resistance because there is not a single 
application that needs it right now. I haven't found third party RPMs for 
SUSE or Fedora that we could easily adapt either. If you know about them, 
please tell me.

Personally I think that our Linux would be a better product if we had the PyQt 
4 "runtime" installed by default, or at least available as RPMs for easy 
installation.

If you think so, too, you can help to make this happen:

Have a look at our build service

http://en.opensuse.org/Build_Service

and if you like it, write to admin at opensuse.org and ask for an account, so you 
can volunteer as the maintainer for the PyQt 4 package and/or your personal 
PyQt project in the build service.

The cool thing about the openSUSE build service is that does not only build 
RPMs for various flavours of SUSE Linux, but also packages for Debian/Ubuntu, 
Fedora, and Mandriva. So this could be a one-stop solution for building PyQT 
packages.

It would also help to tell me about applications that are already using PyQt 4 
and should be added to openSUSE, or at least be available for optional 
download on the build service.

Finally, just spread the word about PyQt, so that there is more real demand 
for it. 

Right now there is a hen-and-egg problem with it: If it's not installed by 
default it's relatively hard to install PyQt 4 apps, but to have PyQt apps 
out there that justify adding PyQt 4 to the distribution by default it has to 
be easy enough to develop/deploy them in the first place.

Cheers

Joachim

-- 
Joachim Werner <joe at suse.de>
Project Manager Contracts, Migration, SDK
Novell, Linux R&D Nuernberg