From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Jul 9 9:50:41 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from avocet.mail.pas.earthlink.net (avocet.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.121.50]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 943E637B406; Mon, 9 Jul 2001 09:50:33 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from mindspring.com (dialup-209.244.104.114.Dial1.SanJose1.Level3.net [209.244.104.114]) by avocet.mail.pas.earthlink.net (EL-8_9_3_3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id JAA15073; Mon, 9 Jul 2001 09:50:31 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <3B49E0FB.FA88D7A3@mindspring.com> Date: Mon, 09 Jul 2001 09:51:07 -0700 From: Terry Lambert Reply-To: tlambert2@mindspring.com X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en]C-CCK-MCD {Sony} (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Cc: Ted Mittelstaedt , Eric Wayte , freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD Mall now BSDCentral References: <000701c10452$ca818600$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com> <3B4560DD.428634F8@softweyr.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Wes Peters wrote: > Yes, all of the above are bad, and they're a sign of an even worse > problem. FreeBSD has done well for the past 8 years due in large part > because it an energetic and persuasive "product manager" in the person > of Jordan K. Hubbard pushing, cajoling, and badgering the CD-ROM > product through the arduous steps of production. Those who think > this process happens on auto-pilot are deluded; it has to be baby- > stepped through every time. The main issues are the distribution files that are not standardized, not memorialized in the makefiles, the binary only files which belong to Walnut Creek and can't really be distributed by others, and the holes in the build process (particularly, the 34 or so ports necessary for the Docs build, the package file assembly, and the X11 distribution that's built out and installed in its own weird-ass format, instead of as a package). I believe that the packages are still built-out by Satoshi, not Jordan. The docs ports are problematic: recently, with the ftp.freebsd.org fiasco, it was not possible to build a full release, unless you happened to know that there was exactly one non-deleting mirror where you could get the required files (in England). It also pointed out the flaws in the single point of failure model. > Specifically, we need a Product Manager who can shepherd > FreeBSD through the release process, and coordinate with > CD-ROM distributor(s) who are interested in producing and > selling CDs, DVDs, etc of the "official" FreeBSD distribution. Actually, No. What needs to happen is that the tools needed to do the build need to be collected with the rest of the sources, so that the system is fully self hosted. It would also be nice if someone wanted to commit those patches I made to sysinstall and the /usr/src/release Makefile to permit building CDROMs with other-than-GENERIC kernels to actually work. PAO and others agreed that they were desirable. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message