Re: Floppy X

[Steven G Bosnick <sbosnick@uoguelph.ca>]

On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, J wrote:

> I really feel the very basic X where you can load multiple windows is
> a must. 
> No other distribution has organized disks in that way and Debian
> can be better if it can support X base disks IMHO.

I'd like put in an argument against including X on the base 
distribution. Whether or not it would make the installation any easier 
(I'm not convinced that it would) I don't think that X should be a 
required part of a Debian installation. I could see moving some of the X 
packages up to standard priority, but I argue against moving them up 
higher than that (except Xlib which is important priority since some 
non-X packages depend on it). While I think it is the case the "normal" 
installations of a Debian system will include X, some specialize 
installations will not. For example, if I were installing Debian on a 
computer that was going to be a dedicated firewall machine I would not 
want to have X on that machine to open possible security holes. I'd want 
no more than absolutely necessary on that machine and that means no X.

                            Steven Bosnick
                         sbosnick@uoguelph.ca
                                                            VP External
Philosophy Department                    Graduate Students' Association
University of Guelph                               University of Guelph