> > Trust means code that comes from the project. It is clean, writen in
> > accordance with NetBSD standards and complies with its phylosophy 
> > (including but not limited to: command line switches, manual pages, 
> > trojan-free, ...) I belive it is extremly important for the project
> > (long term sense) to keep to its standards. Keeping things separate
> > helps that a lot.
> 
> How does that definition of trust have anything to do with what add-on
> packages you use?
> 
> Or are you arguing that all the add-on software you use should
> eventually be improved and integrated directly into NetBSD?

There are two points here. One is having the basic system as small as
possible and still functional enough to be able to add-on anything you want
so the integration is out of the question (and as far as I belive is not
in acordance with NetBSD phylosophy) since the basic system would grow
and consequently be bloated and out of control. Simplicity is important.

The other is having a clean system. It is evident at a first glance
that having /usr/pkg and /usr/local helps keep it clean. It is because
admin can differentiate between system, pkg and his own local additions
without using any tool (maybe you don't want it or care about that difference
but many of us do) just by looking at the filesystem.

I started with Linux, but found it bloated and turned to BSD. There I
first used OpenBSD, which (in my former opinion) resembled Linux best,
but then loved it for the fact it was BSD. Started using FreeBSD in parallel
just because some things didn't work on OpenBSD/i386. Installed NetBSD
out of curiosity and was found it dull and to stripped. But in time both
Open- and FreeBSD became too bloated or too (inexperianced)user oriented or
too keen of popularity or too competition oriented towards Linux or simple not
academic, clean and puristic enough. Then I found that only NetBSD can
offer all that. And one of the first things that I was impressed with
is the sharp distinction between system parts. So, in a way this distinction
is why I use NetBSD. :)


Enough sentimentality.

There are two approaches.
1. the BSD style: basic os + add-ons
2. gentoo linux style: everything is a package.
   that way suits linux best, because it strives to be bleeding edge and
   don't care that much that basic os is not 100% cleaned and stable
   and consistent. it just changes too quickly and noone is having overall
   control. i like BSD style, where basic os is controled by the NetBSD
   foundation. We cannot control every single application, so we just
   apply some constraints and keep them controlled as much as possible under
   pkgs. But enable them to EVOLVE THEIR WAY WITH THEIR RULES WITHOUT 
   INTERFERING WITH OUR WAY AND OUR RULES IN THE BASIC OS.


 
 jj