>I think it's a good idea. On every new system I install, "cvs" fails
>mysteriously until I remember to set CVS_RSH=ssh. Who uses "rsh"
>nowadays, anyway? ("pserver" != "rsh")

I do (use rsh) as to dozens of others who work in large
internal s/w projects.  Not that that is an argument against 
making ssh the default, just that it is indeed still useful.
rsh is still light weight compared to ssh.

--sjg