sources.list questions

[Dazed_75]

Yesterday I was reading an article at
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2663/how-to_get_full which promoted an
"easy" way to improve multimedia capabilities for ubuntu.  My question is
not about that article, but about some implications of the method they
proposed. I am hoping to learn a few things (after all, that is why I am
exploring Linux) and maybe start a discussion others might find useful.

The article wanted to reader to replace the content of /etc/apt/sources.list
with the contents of
http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=2865&stc=1presumably
because this would be easier for the user then typing the stuff
in.

1) My generic concern is that people might get themselves in a world of hurt
by following that form of changing repositories.  There is no way for the
author to know what is being replaced and too many users would not know what
harm they could be doing.  This technique could silently cause the user to
totally lose access to repositories they had added.

2) A specific concern is with some of the changes which purport to "*link to
U.S. repositories from Ubuntu"* for no particular reason.  For that matter,
are these even sites authorized by Ubuntu?  Whois is unclear tho pinging the
domain resolves to an IP address for whom the whois org-name says Margolis
IT Solutions Limited t/a mNET.  How does one know what URI's to trust just
because of some recommendation?

3) man sources.list says " The file lists one source per line, with the most
preferred source listed first."  Does this just mean first line before
second?  Or does it [also] mean first component (e.g. universe) before the
second?  And if the latter, I wonder about placing universe before main and
restricted for some lines and after for others.

4) Still, I might be tempted to try this on some box and see what happens.
Anyone see any good contra-indicators?

5) What would be the likely impact of doing what the artice says but then
swapping back to the original sources.list afterward?

-- 
"The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the
transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."

Patrick Henry quote
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