At 08:31 PM 3/19/97 -0500, Chris G. Demetriou wrote:
>> In "Re: DEC uses NetBSD", Rob Deker <deker@digex.net> wrote: 
>> I agree, but is this really what the NetBSD community needs?  Most things
>> build for NetBSD right out of the box (which is good, and stems from people
>> feeding any diffs back to the author of the program).
>
>It is certainly one thing that NetBSD needs.
>
>NetBSD needs more users.  Having precompiled binaries makes life a lot
>easier for 'random users.'  (So does a good install process, etc.)
>'Random users' who are trying to get 'real work' (i.e. their
>application, be it software development or some other application)
>done do _not_ want to be bothered configuring and compiling random
>software.

Hasn't this been discussed before?

I think the issues were:
1) Precompiled ports will be *huge* due to the number of NetBSD platforms, so
   builds will probably have to be done on the user's machine. 
2) Nobody could agree on where "stuff" should get installed. Do binaries
   go in /usr/local/bin or /usr/local/PKGNAME/bin, with a link in
/usr/local/bin? What about the oddball case where somebody wants to do
   something different*? Who dislikes /opt/BLAHblah/*?
3) Many packages have lots of configuration options. How do you select which
   options should be used? Ease of changing these options? Is a GUI/CUI
   needed for this?
4) Satisfying all of these issues becomes a pain in the arse for the person 
   who creates the package -> fewer packages are created.

>Hell, it annoys me to have to compile the few programs that I need
>(ssh, emacs, a few X programs) when setting up on a new architecture
>(or upgrading the software), and i'm _used_ to having to do it.

Yup. 

CC line trimmed.

*You want oddball? Ask me why AltaVista Intranet sucks.
--
XCOMM Kevin P. Neal, Junior, Comp. Sci.     -   House of Retrocomputing
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