Rainer Weikusat <rainerweiku...@virginmedia.com> wrote:

> ... or the fact that apache on the box I'm presently
> using 'depends' on bind and syslog.

Well in the general case*, those are not unreasonable dependencies. In the 
general case*, Apache needs** DNS resolution during startup, and it rather 
makes sense** if it's able to log stuff while it's starting up.

* And all software builds/packaging is a compromise. The package needs to 
support the general case, and a wide variety of not quite so general use cases. 
If your use case doesn't have any dependency between Apache and DNS then you 
are free to remove that - I know it's not exactly hard to do with Sysinit.

** Again, need is a relative term.
In my experience, Apache will start "just fine" without DNS (but it does depend 
a little on your config), but not having DNS may mean it can't determine some 
values which are good for it to have. You can remove that dependency if it's 
not applicable to you - but for some it's "important" and it makes sense for 
the default to work for "most people".
It doesn't absolutely need to use syslog, and it doesn't absolutely need to log 
stuff during startup - but in the general case it's going to cause less 
complaints if it's able to log stuff using syslog while starting up - if you're 
not bothered then you can easily change that too.


The thing is, it really does not matter what decision you make - there will be 
a vocal minority for whom that is "completely wrong, how on earth could you do 
that". I've witnessed 'discussions' where someone building low footprint 
systems complain that (in that case, I think it was Debian) installed loads of 
stuff they didn't want by default, and that packages weren't modular enough to 
allow them to leave out the bits they didn't want. He just couldn't see that a) 
the default package list needs to be a reasonable compromise between installing 
stuff most people commonly need and space, and that b) he could easily change 
things himself if that default wasn't suitable - he just considered the Debian 
guys to be "wrong" for not supporting his exact use case by default.

So how about a bit less complaining, and a bit more rejoicing that we have a 
lot more choice and flexibility than (say) Windows users !

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