Subject: Re: /opt (NOT!)

From: [email-masked] (Rob Healey)

>   How many messages are posted to this list, from people saying:
> 
>   "I think I installed everything that I need, vmunix.744 and a rootfs
>    from....."
> 
>   That is the wide world out there, and it is exemplary of how difficult
>   it is to implement even small low-level changes in the global installed
>   base of a software.
> 
	But it doesn't matter! There is no RELEASE version of NetBSD, it's
	all alpha/beta. WHY do people act like the work in progress that
	is NetBSD is somehow already written in stone?

	If someone is using NetBSD because they think it is a release
	version then they are seriously misunderstanding reality. Until
	1.0 is actually released I have no qualms with any change, major
	or minor. I knew that I was installing a work in progress, so
	why is everyone acting like it's somehow written in stone already?

	For crying out loud, it's SVR4 that's supposed to drag it's
	feet and be backward compatable all the way to the Abacus not
	BSD! The POINT of BSD is to change things constantly and never
	settle down! It's a RESEARCH OS, not a commercial OS!

	I agree with Ty, we should adopt the FreeBSD pkg_* system and
	then at install time we can decide where we like the package
	to be; /usr/local? /opt? /foo? /fork_svr4? Then all the BSD
	systems can be radically different from each other, in the TRUE
	BSD tradition, and it won't matter!

	Everybody happy?

		-Rob