From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 2 19:53:16 2005 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 2C30816A4D1 for ; Mon, 2 May 2005 19:53:16 +0000 (GMT) Received: from orb.pobox.com (orb.pobox.com [207.8.226.5]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A300943D7C for ; Mon, 2 May 2005 19:53:15 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from discussion-lists@linnet.org) Received: from orb (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by orb.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id ACFD9A10; Mon, 2 May 2005 15:53:11 -0400 (EDT) Received: from billdog.local.linnet.org (dsl-212-74-113-65.access.uk.tiscali.com [212.74.113.65]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by orb.sasl.smtp.pobox.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4235B8B; Mon, 2 May 2005 15:53:07 -0400 (EDT) Received: from lists by billdog.local.linnet.org with local (Exim 4.43 (FreeBSD)) id 1DSh0K-0000KN-F2; Mon, 02 May 2005 20:54:56 +0100 Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 20:54:56 +0100 From: Brian Candler To: John Sconiers Message-ID: <20050502195456.GA1226@uk.tiscali.com> References: <57436.216.177.243.42.1114582155.localmail@webmail.dnswatch.com> <6.1.0.6.2.20050426233321.084e9210@cobalt.antimatter.net> <51899.216.177.243.42.1114584317.localmail@webmail.dnswatch.com> <6.1.0.6.2.20050427001118.0327cd50@cobalt.antimatter.net> <52515.216.177.243.42.1114586501.localmail@webmail.dnswatch.com> <61359.216.177.243.35.1114722481.localmail@webmail.dnswatch.com> <20050429105416.GA94049@wedge.madpilot.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i cc: /dev/null cc: Guido Falsi cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: boot banner project 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: Mon, 02 May 2005 19:53:16 -0000 On Fri, Apr 29, 2005 at 02:34:40PM -0500, John Sconiers wrote: > Several > years ago after being a FreeBSD fan / contributor since ~1995 I left > FreeBSD because I didn't have the time with kids and all. During that > time I was a unix / storage ps guy for two fortune 500 companies (One > was a vendor of another Unix OS). I was also "forced" to work with > Linux in production settings. I come back ~three years later and on > the surface things haven't changed. The boot banner, installation > program, etc, etc, hasn't changed. Personally I find that to be a big plus, not a minus. One of the reasons I ditched Linux several years ago was the way Linux shifts constantly. A good example is the firewalling code: once upon a time there was ipfw. Then that was replaced by ipfwadm. Then that was discarded, and replaced by ipchains. Which in turn was discarded and replaced by iptables. (Or was that the other way round? I don't follow it closely these days) That's not to say the FreeBSD sysinstall is perfect and couldn't do with a radical shake-up - it certainly could, as it is the primary administration interface for a large set of users, and has many problems. But I'd vote for an overhaul of that rather than a colour boot banner any day. > I know there have been many > updates and advanced features added to FreeBSD. Absolutely. There's really superb stuff which makes the system more powerful and easier to administer, like the dynamic /dev filesystem and the GEOM layer. Would a pretty boot screen make my system easier to administer? Probably not, and if it didn't work down a serial console then it would be a retrograde step. I believe that FreeBSD aims primarily to be a server O/S, not a desktop O/S. Of course it makes a perfectly good desktop too (as my own desktop and laptop will testify), but any new feature needs to consider its utility in a server environment first, I believe. Regards, Brian.