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Date:      Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:18:18 -0500
From:      linimon@lonesome.com (Mark Linimon)
To:        crs@swcp.com
Cc:        ports@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: compat3x
Message-ID:  <20061018191818.GA20425@soaustin.net>
In-Reply-To: <200610181906.k9IJ6Ai4091879@sorsby.org>
References:  <200610181906.k9IJ6Ai4091879@sorsby.org>

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On Wed, Oct 18, 2006 at 01:06:10PM -0600, Charlie Sorsby wrote:
> What does this mean and why is it so?
> 
> Wednesday, 18 Oct, 2006 -- 12:59:41 MDT
> ===>  compat3x-i386-4.4.20020925 is forbidden: FreeBSD-SA-03:05.xdr, FreeBSD-SA-03:08.realpath  - not fixed / no lib available.

It means there is no feasible way to write a secure version of antique
software and do the necessary regression testing to guarantee that it is so.

> While I can understand lack of support for old versions of the OS,
> I cannot understand nor can I fail to resent y'all's making its use
> impossible.

It's not impossible.  Comment out the line and install it, but understand that
by doing so you now have a vulnerable system.

> Perhaps if y'all were not so intent upon making free"BSD" less and
> less BSD and more and more "invented here" such problems would be
> less common.

BSD ran on VAXen and the like.  FreeBSD runs on dual-core processors with
power management, wireless networks, disks that were larger than the BSD
designers thought possible via quantum physics (I have this first-hand),
and gigabit networks; all on processor architectures that did not exist
(in anything close to their current form) back in the halcyon days.

So, we get it either way: if we attempt to bring in new features, we are
criticized for trying to invent new solutions; if we attempt to stay where
we are, we suddenly find we don't run on any hardware that anyone actually
cares about anymore.  Given this, we do our best to generate consensus
about what most people are interested in working on and maintaining, and
go from there.

btw, we don't support Mosaic in the Ports Collection, either, for exactly
the same reason.  I removed it myself.  It was a great piece of software
for its time.

That time passed.

mcl



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