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Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 01:52:29 GMT
From: Stephen Hocking <sysseh@devetir.qld.gov.au>
Message-Id: <199502080152.BAA23286@netfl15a.devetir.qld.gov.au>
To: hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: sup: Ok, I'm gonna do it.
Sender: hackers-owner@FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk


>> But, the proposal is to tie our installation mechanism or perhaps our system
>> adminstration/setup system to VGA hardware.  For me, and those like me, who
>> collect raggedy old scraps, and retired PC's, and test FreeBSD on them, or
>> build special purpose FreeBSD boxes out of them, this means tossing out
>> half of them because they have EGA or MONO video cards.  Damn shame, and a
>> total waste.
>
>Look, kindness to old hardware is well and good but you need to draw
>the line somewhere when it comes to retarding progress for it.  Just
>as you can't give `full service' to someone with a very small disk
>(they're not going to be able to take advantage of your sources, or
>perhaps X, or the ports, or ... and thus will perceive FreeBSD very
>differently) so you're not going to be able to support the more
>advanced features on aging hardware.  That's just the breaks.  Nobody
>said that the traditional command-line tools wouldn't be still
>supported - people with specialized configurations will still be able
>to type ifconfig, netstat, ping, ... by hand without any advanced tool
>holding their hand or other suitable appendage.  In fact, they'll probably
>*prefer* to.
>

	Will the new installation stuff use something like the dialog
library hacked to run under X - I can't see why we are not able to run up
something that will work under curses & X automagically. Maybe the dialog
stuff is a good spot to start, unless someone has already done something
cool for tcl/tk.

	Stephen