> : > On Thursday 30 August 2007, Pietro Cerutti wrote: > : >> # make world > : >> WARNING: make world will overwrite your existing FreeBSD > : >> installation without also building and installing a new > : >> kernel. This can be dangerous. Please read the handbook, > : >> 'Rebuilding world', for how to upgrade your system. > : >> Define DESTDIR to where you want to install FreeBSD, > : >> including /, to override this warning and proceed as usual. > : >> You may get the historical 'make world' behavior by defining > : >> HISTORICAL_MAKE_WORLD. You should understand the implications > : >> before doing this. [...] > : I don't want my OS to treat me like a stupid. > > I will note that since we switched to the multi-phase world with > explicit reboot instructions, the support load for 'oh no, I shot > myself in the foot' has gone way down. There are times that one must > put a few safety rails in place. Since we have limited resources for > support for users, it is better to make them make sure they know what > they are doing so we can focus our resources better. > > Sometimes we have to optimize for developer time in the tradeoffs that > are made.
Against any bit of modesty that's left in me, I'll crawl out of my cave for a second here -- to make a wise comment, no doubt ;) Not trying to start offtopic, just a little remark that's of importance to me (and to many other FreeBSD users, I bet). Not every FreeBSD user is [still] a "computer enthusiast". It just so happens that the OS at the time is the best one for many, many different uses, such as: server, router, research workstation, 'desktop', etc. It is basically an excellent universal tool for many (computer_science|IT)-unrelated tasks, e.g. machine in a physics lab. The ideal tool, of course, is the one that Just Works. Some of the folks using it can't afford the time expense of figuring out how exactly it's geared -- as long as things are working. If it Just Dies at any wrong move -- then, well, one can loose a lot of time, and be pretty screwed. I just hope that you developers won't be forgetting about the users. None of that "Are you sure?" nonsense is needed (it interferes with work as one gains experience), but just a helpful info message or a warning at the right moment is sure nice -- it makes things less painful and more productive. You see, it'd make me really sad to see FBSD go in the direction of Linux one day, and be geared towards (hackish) developers. Meaningless (to a mere mortal) error messages, obscure ways of doing things, chaotic development, and so on. Quite user-unfriendly. These things aren't "bad", they just tend to make the OS less useful as a tool. BTW, if this thread doesn't burn out, then perhaps it's about time it should start drifting in the general direction of [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Warner [SorAlx] ridin' VS1400 _______________________________________________ freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
