On 13/11/2007, Glynn Foster <Glynn.Foster at sun.com> wrote: > Hey, > > Simon Phipps wrote: > > Maybe that "reference" is actually the repository, not the code? > > Absolutely agree on this. Having the ability for all distributions to pull > from > the same repository with a different set of recipes seems like the most ideal > way to share our work. I'd very much advocate for this approach, and certainly > where I saw Indiana heading to along with the distro constructor work.
I could be convinced of this, provided that a few conditions are met: * That a particular desktop is chosen as the reference one (Ubuntu did it, and so can we) so that developers can write GUI applications with the assumption that they will work (assuming that app uses that desktop's libraries). * That standard libraries will always be installed and available for basic, expected functionality such as sound, video, graphics, and input without requiring a download. * That the IPS packages in the repository that represent the core have a special tag that indicates a version of that that reference that the package is part of (otherwise, new packages added at any time would cause the reference platform to change) * That certain other base pieces of functionality can also be depended upon without the user installing additional components (SMF, Zones, DTrace, ZFS, etc.) -- Shawn Walker, Software and Systems Analyst http://binarycrusader.blogspot.com/ "We don't have enough parallel universes to allow all uses of all junction types--in the absence of quantum computing the combinatorics are not in our favor..." --Larry Wall
