On Thu, May 31, 2001 at 10:02:57AM -0700, Michael Goetze wrote: > Hi... I just read the archives for this list... sure hasn't been much > happening. I'd like to > conduct a quick and dirty survey to see whether it's worthwhile to get > involved with this... I'd > like to ask everyone subscribed to this list to take a minute or two to > answer... > > Just so you know, my idea of a Debian/BSD system is a DEBIAN system with a > BSD kernel... that's > why Debian comes first.... (Whereby Debian's Not Linux, and GNU's Not Unix...) > > (1) Which BSD would you prefer to use as a base? (Free, Net, Open)
I could care less. I'll probably start w/ openbsd, just because it's what I have on a development box which can be trashed/reinstalled easily, but freebsd will be next. I don't use netbsd, but the tools involved will be as portable as possible, so using netbsd should be trivial. > > (2) What do you think is the best way to start? Start with an already installed *BSD, install an apt-alike, and grab debian packages. Obviously, to start out, everything will be compiled against bsd libc, until glibc (or a smaller libc; i _really_ dislike glibc) is downloaded. Anyways, the most reasonable way that I see to start this effort is to rewrite apt to be more ports-like. Currently. apt-get --compile source <foo> will make a fine (and usually smaller than the same found on debian mirrors) debian package; it has two downfalls, however. The first is that source debs come pre-configured; this is an annoyance under linux when, say, you want to strip a dependancy out of a package. Under BSD, this just doesn't work; it means you'll require a different source package for BSD packages. Yuck. The second problem is that when you go to (dist-)upgrade, apt will happily overwrite your compiled package w/ the "official" package (even if they're the exact same version). So basically, my course of action is to rewrite apt w/ the above capabilities (and in C, instead of C++. I'm not going to get into a language war. I use both frequently, C is what I prefer). After apt is able to do that, I will use it to convert mandrake, suse, and redhat boxes to debian, as well as upgrading my existing debian boxes to debian packages compiled myself (probably skipping over the large compiles; mozilla, X, and so on). From there, get it working and usable on my openbsd box. At that point, I'm done. I _need_ a uniform packaging system across free OS's, and dpkg beats rpm (by far) and various ports systems. The rest of you are free to to have massive flamewars about kernels, libcs, and how to package it all together for an out-of-the-box debian/bsd system. Feel free to criticize my plan, but don't expect me to care about anything that's not constructive. My goal isn't a debian/bsd system that I can download/buy; it's a portable (and painless) package system that I can use to administer my various *BSD and linux boxen. > > (3) Are you here to contribute, or to flame? Good question; they're both so much fun.. ;) > > Thanks, > > Michael > > --- > > "7. Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, dar�ber muss man schweigen." -- > Wittgenstein > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail - only $35 > a year! http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/ > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] > -Andres Salomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (Please CC replies to my voxel address. I'm on the list, but my email is in a state of disarray atm)
