Bug 186156

Summary:	KDE should install without a database server
Product:	[Frameworks and Libraries] Akonadi	Reporter:	Geert Poels <geert.poels>
Component:	libakonadi	Assignee:	Volker Krause <vkrause>
Status:	RESOLVED INTENTIONAL
Severity:	normal
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Ubuntu
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Geert Poels 2009-03-04 22:13:46 UTC

Version:            (using KDE 4.2.0)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

Akonadi might sound like a great concept, yet I don't want a database server on my machine.
Sneaking a server in through an update shows much disrespect for (KDE) users.

How is your regular home user supposed to know what to do in terms of backups, security, etc. ... ?
Ubuntu, which by default comes without a firewall, suddenly has a server running with (as always) a potential security leak.
Will I loose application data if this db gets corrupt ?

Can't a file be used for just an average home user ?
Interchangeable by a database for advanced users.

http://pim.kde.org/akonadi/

Comment 1 Dario Andres 2009-03-06 00:36:55 UTC

Reassigning to Akonadi

Comment 2 Volker Krause 2009-03-28 16:12:23 UTC

http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/PIM/Akonadi#Akonadi_FAQ should answer many of your questions, especially why Akonadi currently only support MySQL as a backend.

Your comments about the update policy of your distribution should of course be reported there, nothing we can do about that.

Regarding the security issue, the MySQL server as started by Akonadi does not open any TCP port, therefore no firewall is needed for it.

Comment 3 Geert Poels 2009-03-29 12:03:04 UTC

I would be highly surprised if the Ubuntu team themselves would have decided to include Akonadi or choose themselves to set MySQL as a dependency.
As the FAQ states : "you of course can't disable Akonadi startup".

I'm using KOrganizer which, according to the FAQ, "are not based on Akonadi yet".
Yet "applications like KAddressbook and KOrganizer would use Akonadi indirectly through KResources".
How am I supposed to know as a home user, have relied on an .ics file for storage and backup, that one day my valuable data are migrated towards a database nobody warns me about. This has nothing to do with the Ubuntu distribution or upgrade system.
It would be like an OpenOffice update, where you save your document to a file, but actually, your content is stored somewhere else (a database in this case).
IMHO Very wrong to implement this through a minor update.
It should have been with a major release.

Comment 4 Volker Krause 2009-03-31 17:08:23 UTC

I think there is a misunderstanding on what is stored inside the Akonadi database. I tried to clarify this in http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/PIM/Akonadi#Where_does_Akonadi_store_my_data.3F .

In short: your data stays in the same files as before, Akonadi merely acts as a cache and central access point for it.

Comment 5 Volker Krause 2009-08-12 14:27:48 UTC

Comments #2 and #4 should have addressed all issues mentioned here.