Release separate assets for vncviewer and vncserver installers about turbovnc HOT 1 CLOSED

TurboVNC has always been distributed as a unified package ("always" = for almost 20 years), because a unified package is more intuitive for most users. This reflects the fact that TurboVNC is an enterprise solution, and even though it is fully open source, it has to compete with closed-source solutions (e.g. RealVNC) and hybrid solutions (e.g. ThinLinc, which is based on TigerVNC) in terms of ease of installation and use. Funded development is the only way I can work on open source projects full time, and that funded development generally comes from corporations whose deployment needs tend more toward simplicity than toward saving disk space. Thus, I have to be really sensitive to things such as ease of installation, because those things potentially affect my livelihood by virtue of affecting the uptake of TurboVNC among the types of organizations that are most likely to fund it.

The changes aren't as simple as you suggest. One issue is that the official build system generates the RPMs from the SRPM as a sanity check to ensure that the SRPM can be used as a pristine source. The choice of whether to build the viewer or server is embedded in the RPM spec file, so in fact, what you propose would require modifying the spec file so that it generates two binary packages from the same source package. For symmetry, ease of documentation, and intuitiveness, it would be necessary to do the same for the DEB packages, but that creates a whole new set of issues. It would minimally be necessary to modify the in-tree build/packaging system, the official build scripts, and the User's Guide. Then I would have to answer the inevitable tech support requests from people who didn't get the memo. (I guarantee you that there will be complaints.) Ultimately, you are asking me to contribute unpaid labor to make things easier for you but harder for myself. That doesn't make a lot of sense. I think it would be best if you maintain your own packages to meet your specific downstream needs, since those needs are not well aligned with our upstream needs.

from turbovnc.