On Tue, Jun 05, 2007 at 02:21:07AM -0400, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> Nice list.  I'd add

Thanks for the additions.

> Better support for read-only (or read-mostly) boot disks; right now;
> you have to play funky games with mfs/tmpfs file systems to hold
> unpacked copies of /etc and /var.

Good point.  I've added:
   * Better support for read-only (or read-mostly) boot disks (esp, etc
     & var -- also see zeroconf & consider run-time configuration like
     dhcp, named.conf, etc.)

and
   * Separation of configuration data and system image (kernel/binaries)

> Maintenance -- I have a 3.99.7 box that I wouldn't mind upgrading to
> 4.0, but it's too painful to figure out exactly what to replace, given
> the highly customized setup.

I'm thinking that the build-to-image would help here because a lot of
the configuration should be in there.  So I've added the following
points under there:
      * Easy generation of new, custom platforms with little to no
	duplication of code/configuration
      * Easy maintenance of platforms (easy to upgrade from, say,
	5.1 to 7.2, maybe from 5.99.x to 6.0)

Thanks,
-allen

-- 
Allen Briggs  |  http://www.ninthwonder.com/~briggs/  |  briggs@ninthwonder.com