Date: Mon, 27 May 2002 21:59:30 +0300 (EEST) From: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> To: Simon Windsor <simon.windsor@btinternet.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: New user - Many questions Message-ID: <20020527215120.L1562-100000@hades> In-Reply-To: <02052621092800.10268@saxon>
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On 2002-05-26 21:09, Simon Windsor wrote: > On Sunday 26 May 2002 8:42 pm, you wrote: > > On Sun, May 26, 2002 at 11:31:09AM +0100, Simon Windsor wrote: > > > - Why is the base system so big ? I here that perl is being > > > removed, shouldn't sendmail,bind/named also be removed to > > > packages ? > > > > The base system has everything needed for a full *working* system, > > and only weighs in about 200Mb. How big did you expect it go be? > > A basic UNIX install of 200MB is indeed very good. I merely was > asking should not many of the basic utilities be installed as > packages, like Linux, for example do you want sendmail, exim or no > mail server etc. > > This could equally apply do other parts of the base system where > many people might want a choice of other options. True. Making it easy for users to install what parts of a "basic install" they think are "basic" in their case is not necessarily a bad thing. However... > This might not be the FreeBSD way of doing things, and if so I am > sorry for raising the point. One of the important goals of FreeBSD is, in my opinion, to provide a fully functional, complete, and working UNIX environment, which you can install and immediately start using. Some tools are in the basic system because "traditionally, a UNIX system should include FOO". For instance, in Linux you have to install "minicom" or some similar program to get a program that can connect to serial devices and let you interact with the device (very useful when setting up a modem or a router). In FreeBSD, the base system includes tip(1) and cu(1) which work nicely with many serial devices. It is a tradeoff, between a) the parts of a complete UNIX system and what one would expect a UNIX system to have, and b) installation space. In my opinion, the base system of FreeBSD includes a lot of what one expects in a UNIX system and is not too large. Of course, one might argue that the base system is not "the perfect blend of tradition, customizability and features" but that's another story ;) -- Giorgos Keramidas - http://www.FreeBSD.org keramida@FreeBSD.org - The Power to Serve To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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