On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 11:05 AM, Venky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 10:18:18AM -0500, Shawn Walker wrote: >> Note I never said *packages*, I said *binaries*. > > Windows and OS X binaries do not really count, do they? The reason
I think they do. Certainly efforts are being made by Sun to ensure that ips works across multiple platforms because they apparently intend to use it to deliver software on all those platforms. I also believe they matter because those platforms have substantially more users than any other platforms. > they are distributed as binaries is because there is no distribution > channel available for these platforms -- apart from the ones > controlled by Microsoft and Apple. No, I believe they are distributed as binaries because that is what users expect. There are many distribution channels that are available that are not controlled by Apple or Microsoft. Look at steampowered.com as an example on Windows. >> What about nVidia drivers? >> >> What about the binary-only components of OpenSolaris? >> >> What about ndis drivers for networking cards? >> >> What about Sun Studio? >> >> All of those are picked up or distributed by OpenSolaris.org >> distributions are only available as binaries. No source code. > > Sure, where there is no source code available. > > Let me try and re-state my point in an unambiguous manner -- if > a project is open source, the only format relevant to a distribution > maintainer would be source code. If there is an exception to this > rule, I am not aware of it. For distributions maintained and built for internal organisation use, I suspect that binaries will be used in many cases even if the project which the binaries are derived from is open source. For example, I know of organisations that just repackage the binaries provided by mozilla.org for their own internal distribution. I could possibly agree with your assertion for the *first* maintainer at the top of a distribution. But for derivative distribution maintainers, I believe that becomes less and less accurate the farther down the "derivative tree" you go. To supplement Stephen's content about the lack of a build system: http://blogs.sun.com/sch/entry/pkg_leaving_the_build_system Cheers, -- Shawn Walker "To err is human -- and to blame it on a computer is even more so." - Robert Orben _______________________________________________ pkg-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-discuss
