Re: make modular X11 the default on NetBSD

[David Holland <dholland-pkgtech%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Mon, May 14, 2012 at 02:56:49PM -0500, Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
 > I'd like to propose setting X11_TYPE=modular for NetBSD. 

I think this is an extremely bad idea, certainly for netbsd-6,
probably even for netbsd-5.

The point of shipping X with NetBSD is not to ignore it and install
two copies of everything. The X in base remains the recommended X;
switching to pkgsrc X will not, for example, solve the various issues
with DRM and GEM and KMS and if anything will likely make them worse.

Furthermore, having two slightly different copies of everything
doesn't just waste disk space; it's begging for bizarre and difficult
to debug conflicts and interactions.

If you want X, install the X sets.

As far as I can tell the real issue is when you don't want X and don't
install the X sets. The annoyances that arise here should be vastly
reduced in netbsd-6 now that expat has been moved. If that's not
enough, the Right Way (TM) is to do an additional no-X build that
masks libX11. Because this will disable nearly all of the expensive
packages, such a build shouldn't add that much to the load.

 > I think that users of xsrc can still use their X server 
 > and installed X without much problem of using binary packages built with 
 > X11_TYPE=modular.

That seems unlikely.

-- 
David A. Holland
dholland%netbsd.org@localhost