Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: NetBSD System Packages (LONG)
To: None <root@garbled.net>
From: Greg Hudson <ghudson@MIT.EDU>
List: tech-install
Date: 10/02/1998 00:07:18
> Yes.. People with old macs ask me all the time on IRC: "can I
> install on my 70mb mac drive"

So what's the answer going to be with system packages?  "Yes, if you
can identify the 35% of our operating system you actually want."

While I'm here, my view is: packagizing the operating system
distribution adds a lot of complexity, makes it harder to manipulate
the operating system materials without specialized tools, makes it
more likely that two boxes allegedly running the same version of
NetBSD will be different, and buys the local administrator just about
zippo.

It does help address the problem of identifying obsolete files during
an upgrade, but there are much simpler ways of going about that.