From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 18 11:03:34 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B83E16A4CE for ; Thu, 18 Mar 2004 11:03:34 -0800 (PST) Received: from mail.yadt.co.uk (xfiles.yadt.co.uk [81.187.204.178]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E8D3643D1F for ; Thu, 18 Mar 2004 11:03:32 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from davidt@yadt.co.uk) Received: (qmail 58592 invoked from network); 18 Mar 2004 19:03:30 -0000 Received: from gattaca.yadt.co.uk (HELO mail.gattaca.yadt.co.uk) (qmailr@81.187.204.179) by xfiles.yadt.co.uk with SMTP; 18 Mar 2004 19:03:30 -0000 Received: (qmail 7072 invoked by uid 1000); 18 Mar 2004 19:03:30 -0000 Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 19:03:30 +0000 From: David Taylor To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20040318190330.GA6854@gattaca.yadt.co.uk> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org References: <20040318172720.GA31299@online.fr> <4059EB88.4060702@kientzle.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-15 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4059EB88.4060702@kientzle.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Subject: Re: Pkg-based base system. X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 19:03:34 -0000 On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Tim Kientzle wrote: > Rahul Siddharthan wrote: > >Richard Coleman wrote: > > > >>But I don't think anyone is advocating Linux-style granularity of > >>packages. Most people just want a little finer granularity to handle > >>bind, sendmail, dhcp, and maybe openssh. > > > >Yes, and nobody is suggesting removing anything from the base system, > >merely making it easier for the end-user to remove unnecessary base > >components. > > You don't have to remove one thing to use something else. > > Many FreeBSD systems use alternative software without > touching the base system. Just disable the base components > in rc.conf and run your own. You can also "upgrade" any > existing piece by installing a newer port and disabling the > pieces in the base system. > > In the particular case of sendmail, look at the mailwrapper > functionality, which simply redirects the standard "sendmail" > name to your favorite MTA. It's been in FreeBSD since 4.0 > and makes it quite trivial to use any MTA you like instead > of the built-in sendmail. > I never thought I'd hear someone advocating bloat in open source software, but that is essentially what you're saying. Sure, I _can_ just install multiple packages which do exactly the same thing, and turn the ones I don't want off, but it is nice to have the _choice_ not to have to install the default one, but to use my favourite instead. But I think I've done this bikeshed before, so I'll try to refrain from commenting further on this thread... -- David Taylor davidt@yadt.co.uk "The future just ain't what it used to be"