On Mar 26, 2006, at 1:35 PM, Liam J. Foy wrote:

> I vote against Lynx in this discussion. I'd much rather see Firefox,
> Thunderbird, Limewire and XFCE (including all modules) as default.
>

Those all require X and other stuff that isn't present in base  
(right?).  And the long thread about strangeness with Xfree and XOrg  
doesn't lead me to think that getting X ready to run in base will  
happen, even for "major" platforms.

I think the things to consider are:

1- proper availability of included docs, some of which are in html  
format (right?).  Without a  browser included, you have to be able to  
go online, get pkgsrc going, etc. to view the basic documentation.

2- some people have posted indicating that they could not go online  
until they validated with their provider via web-based methods.   
Hence a catch-22.

Personally #2 is why I have a router between me and my cable modem.

I use a minor (I guess) platform for NetBSD- cobalt-MIPS-  I run  
headless, for obvious reasons, but having lynx pkg ready to build  
without having to go online, I can see the utility of that for many  
platforms.  included binaries? fireFox etc?  I guess you could, but  
then there's the issue of completeness... can't cover them all... let  
alone support the windowing environments.

The big thing to me is the docs.  If the docs are in a format that  
needs a browser, then a browser should be there and ready.  Else it  
is like having manpages without man.

-B