> i agree with this. how about you just ask the user at
   > install time if they want "system V init.d" or "bsd /etc/rc"
   > (or something..).
   
   Are most installers going to be anything _but_ confused about this?

perhaps, perhaps not.  they certainly aren't going to be any
more confused than with other parts of the installation that
i've seen for most ports.

perhaps the MI install tools could have a section for
"advanced" users, that lets you choose which to use, but,
that it is set to what ever core decide by default.

i would use this method to get both /etc/rc and /etc/init.d
behaviour -- /etc/rc would run /etc/init.d at "some point",
but the majority of the startup (ie, the system part) would
be in /etc/rc and /etc/rc.local, just like now.