Kyle McDonald writes: > > You're missing at least two downsides that've already been discussed: > > > > - The behavior of the system for ordinary users depends on whether > > the administrator has installed this special package. Thus, users > > are (at least to some degree) beholden to administrators to set up > > their environment. > > > > > Then you better not let them choose to not install the /usr/gnu packages > also.
No, we're talking about default system configurations that can be tweaked at run time by users selecting different $PATH values, and you're instead proposing an install-time solution that an administrator must impose on all of the users of a given system. The two aren't the same. > I don't think that anyone working on solaris can really beleive they'll > know better than the administrators of a site what's best for the user > community at that site? No, but some of us do think that users know better. > For users who we are successfully hiding the existence of $PATH, as long > as the administrator (or the defaults) allow them to do what is supposed > to be allowed at that site, then I don't see a problem. These users are > not going to be interested in moving .dotfiles around between sites - Read "NFS home directory" here. > and if they do I don't think should have the expectation that they'll > just work. > > For users who know about .dotfiles, and $PATH, they shouldn't expect to > be able to move them without changing them. > > Is this really the problem we're trying to solve? Essentially, yes. It goes back to the serendipitous discovery case. There's a lot of value to be had in not making things difficult for the user who merely expects things to work. -- James Carlson, Solaris Networking <james.d.carlson at sun.com> Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive 71.232W Vox +1 781 442 2084 MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757 42.496N Fax +1 781 442 1677
