> somebody has actually worked on this; they can pipe up about it if
> they'd like.  I've not looked too hard at their implementation,
> though, because i've been too busy, because i figured a lot of people
> would object strongly, and because there is some 'groundwork' to be
> set up first...

I have used this on SGI machines and I like it for the
reasons you listed.  SGI machines also allow you to check
and turn on/off various optional services via commands.

They have also broken up their config file equivalent into
littler files.  You just move a file containing a single
vector line into/outof the config dir, rebuild the kernel
and reboot.  This allows you to add/delete drivers and
(even) other subsystems real easily.

Both of these ideas allow one to customize a standard
release to a great extent and without having to learn a
whole bunch or edit any standard files.  There ought to be a
set of linkable .o files (or .a) so that local customization
does not require one to have a complete source distribution.

Now that *BSD systems are being used by so many people we
need to start doing these things that commercial vendors
have had to do for years.  Actually it is worse for
{Net,Free}BSD since they are run on systems with a much more
diverse set of devices compared to SGI/SUN/HP & their ilk.

--bakul