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Date:      Fri, 08 Jan 1999 16:40:54 -0800
From:      "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@zippy.cdrom.com>
To:        Thomas Dean <tomdean@ix.netcom.com>
Cc:        current@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: rc.conf and linux=yes 
Message-ID:  <42188.915842454@zippy.cdrom.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 08 Jan 1999 16:14:04 PST." <199901090014.QAA98015@ix.netcom.com> 

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> Why is 'linux_enable="YES"' the default in rc.conf?

Dammit, I thought nobody would notice. ;)

I switched it on because too many people are reading the online
FreeBSD hype where it says "Runs your Linux binaries!" and loading
something like Star Office up, only to have it fall over kicking with
a very non-descriptive error message (sending them straight to USENET
or IRC with general complaints).  As obvious as it may sound to you or
I, typing "linux" once in order to be able to run linux binaries until
the next reboot just isn't obvious to Joe Average User (nor, to state
the obvious, is /etc/rc.conf), and for the cost of one small module,
it seemed a major increase in FreeBSD's out-of-box functionality.  You
grab a linux binary off the net and it Just Works.  Is that so
terrible a thing to want? :-)

I'd also be more than happy to turn this right back off again if some
of our image activator gurus could change things in such a way that
the linux module was demand-loaded upon first use.  That would achieve
the same effect with even less overhead.

- Jordan

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