On 26/03/2014 01:34, »Q« wrote: > On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 00:25:26 +0200 > Alan McKinnon <alan.mckin...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> On 25/03/2014 22:08, »Q« wrote: >>> On Fri, 21 Mar 2014 06:37:20 -0400 >>> Tanstaafl <tansta...@libertytrek.org> wrote: >>> >>>> On 3/20/2014 5:48 PM, »Q« <boxc...@gmx.net> wrote: >>>>> Why should Gentoo have a default? >>>> >>>> Defaults are always a good idea - as long as they are reasonable >>>> and rational. >>> >>> In that case, Gentoo is missing a lot of "good" things, from a >>> default system logger to a default desktop environment. >>> >>> AFAICS, the benefit of defaults, provided they're reasonable, is >>> that they remove the burden of making choices from the user. But I >>> keep reading that Gentoo is all about user choice. >> >> You are conflating two things, it's actually quite disingenuous. >> >> Gentoo provides choice so you can do what you want. That doesn't >> preclude providing a default that suits people who see no need to make >> *that* choice for *them*, particularly when the thing being chosen is >> necessary or almost so. > > Of course it doesn't preclude that; I'm sorry if implied that it did. > >>>>> ISTM the only good reason is that not having a default would make >>>>> the documentation a lot more complicated. >>>> >>>> Documentation, *and* the install process itself. >>> >>> I'm not seeing that at all. >> >> You have to have *something* to be pid 1. the stage 3 might as well >> provide one of those somethings that suits the common case >> >> You can make it /bin/bash if you want, but that would be a very niche >> usage. The large majority of new installs will want a conventional >> init system whether SysVinit-based or systemd based. Traditionally >> SysVinit was the only real contender and baselayout/openerc were >> originally written for Gentoo. So those are still the defaults. >> >> Without a default, the user must set one up manually for things to >> work at all on first reboot. The install docs try hard to get the user >> through the necessary steps to get a bootable system, a lot of effort >> went into making the steps to accomplish that fewer, no more > > Requiring the fewest possible number of choices to get to a bootable > system is a much better argument for a default than "defaults are > always good".
Yes, defaults make the most sense when you have virtuals, or when you must have 1 thing out of a range of things. -- Alan McKinnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com
