Re: make modular X11 the default on NetBSD

[Pierre Pronchery <khorben%defora.org@localhost>]

                        Hi,

On Tue, 15 May 2012 22:24:15 +0200, Manuel Bouyer wrote:

> 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. It is
>> convenient to have packages for X11 that don't depend on a base system.
>> It is convenient to be able to upgrade or maintain individual
>> dependencies. 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.
> 
> I strongly dissagree. NetBSD ships with X11, this should be the one used
> by default. I don't want to get a second copy of X11 when installing
> packages.

Sorry for joining the discussion a bit late, but if I may, I don't see 
how it makes much of a difference to ship X11 as part of pkgsrc or 
through sets. I consider my favorite shell to be far more essential than 
that, and it definitely doesn't come from base; this has never been a 
problem to me.

If you do not want to get a second copy of X11 when installing packages, 
defaulting to modular Xorg would only give you one copy. Personally, I 
have always found it much more convenient to use modular, including while 
working on Mesa, DRM issues and the likes. It is easy to build (and keep!
) packages in known states and simply swap them around while doing tests, 
and definitely faster and more convenient than through CVS and the src 
tree.

The same goes for deployment and maintenance of many machines, where 
build and installation procedures are easier to maintain if sets are kept 
to a coherent minimum, and the machines requiring (part of) Xorg simply 
get it via packages as relevant, with updates every quarter like the 
other packages.

My $0.02,
-- 
khorben