Re: glibc

[Steve Price <sprice@hiwaay.net>]

On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, Gary Kline wrote:

# 	We all come to this table with our own biases; perhaps half of
# 	which have some merit.

How about we leave them at the door and save room on the
table for drawing up plans?  Not suggesting that anyone
hasn't, just couldn't resist saying that.  Sorry. ;)

# 	I think that having the real debian packaging stuff would
# 	be a win for FreeBSD.  It would get FBSD folks used to 
# 	Debian, for one thing.  For another, it would--as I understand
# 	it--make keeping everything in-sync lightyears easier.

Yes sort of like Adopt-a-project.  Won't happen overnight
but having more hands/minds buying into the idea will make
new features work better and come out more often.

# 	Steve, do you understand what the snags are here?

I'm afraid this is a little too open-ended a question for me
to be sure I'm answering this correctly but I'll give it a
couple of swacks hoping to hit on the right interpretation.

If you mean what are the snags in getting FreeBSD people to
use dpkg and friends, then I'd say it is because the tools
aren't there (yet) and even if they were their aren't any
.debs for them to use.  Exactly why I did the port and
suggested we use the patches from the current ports collection
as a kickstart.  Show me a better hammer and give me some
nails and I'll build you anything you want.  If it works
good enough people will either use it or they'll miss out.
Six one way, half dozen the other.  I'm going to use what
meets my needs best and so will they.  It is up to us to
figure out what it is that makes them both great and put
that together in a single package.

If you are talking about what might keep FreeBSD people
from using dpkg and friends, then it boils down to two things.
The most important is does it provide something that has
significant advantages over what they currently use.  Answer
yes to this question and it will be adopted.  The other minor
problem will be licensing, but we're all grown people and
I'm sure we can find the middle ground that is acceptable to
everyone.

If you are talking about what would keep people from helping
out with or moving over to help with another distribution,
then you are probably running into someone like me that doesn't
want to see another distribution.  Rather I want to see us
bring the hackers/artists/et al back together so that the OS
we provide is best dang thing since electric toast.  Whether
we base our work on FreeBSD or Debian predominantly doesn't
matter.  The end goal is for us to come together and have
both the communities benefit from it.  Right?

<soapbox>
If the plan is to create a new distribution because some
among us aspire to be the next Linus Torvalds or Bill Gates,
then I'm out of here.  Let others measure you by what you
give to the community and don't measure yourself by what you
want to take back.  In other words, don't seek fame.  If you
are good enough it will find you on its own if that's what
you desire.
</soapbox>

If you asking something else or seeking a Debian perspective
I'm afraid you'll have to provide more details or ask someone
else. :)

-steve