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Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 18:08:03 -0800
From: David Kirchner <dpk@dpk.net>
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To: Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org>
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References: <E1EWUlt-000B8i-Fm@cs1.cs.huji.ac.il>
	<20051031082807.GA68204@xor.obsecurity.org>
	<4366ACF0.20606@box559.com> <4366C1BB.8080202@samsco.org>
Cc: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org>, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: GENERIC and DEFAULTS
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On 10/31/05, Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org> wrote:
> The future direction is that FreeBSD will continue to be friendly to
> novice users while still affording power users the control that they
> seek.  This feature is not going to be a dumping ground of dubious
> and secret options that are impossible to control.  If you truly don't
> want the isa, npx, io, or mem devices in your kernel, then you can
> exclude them via the 'nodevice' directive. You can even just delete the
> DEFAULT file entirely if you choose, though I really don't recommend
> this.

If the goal is to make FreeBSD more friendly to novice users, then
sure, having a "failsafe" DEFAULT file makes sense. Along those lines
-- something else that I feel would help novice users would be a
default kernel, always available unless specifically removed, that
contains most of the drivers most of them use. It could be the kernel
that they used to install the device in the first place, or something
similar. That way if they build a couple of kernels in a row that
don't end up working like they want, wiping out the working kernel,
they could be directed to try this default kernel. At least then they
could have the system working again.