Subject: Re: Final plug for extra utilities
To: matthew sporleder <msporleder@gmail.com>
From: Ben Collver <collver@peak.org>
List: netbsd-users
Date: 09/01/2006 19:34:23
On Fri, Sep 01, 2006 at 10:06:05PM -0400, matthew sporleder wrote:
> >perl:
> >    I'm revoking this one. Perl is too large and complicated, and it's
> >    not required.
> Yes, operating systems that include perl/java/python/etc are just
> forcing someone to maintain two versions on their system and confuse
> everyone a lot.

I've seen cluster nodes with a dozen "virtual servers", some of which
had multiple versions of Perl with specific build options desired by
specific developers.  The administrators didn't get confused.

But having it built in leads me to wonder if it can be removed, or
properly upgraded.  For example, parts of Gentoo may depend on Python,
or parts of OSX may depend on a JVM.  How can one argue in this case
that it shouldn't be built in?

Ben