I can't overexpress how much I agree
On 10.11.2023 15:23, Vladimir Marchenko wrote:
Dear FreeBSD Ports Community,
I am a longtime FreeBSD user, having started back in the late 1990s.
Yay, it has been since the last century! I am reaching out to request
a reconsideration of the decision to remove djbdns from FreeBSD Ports
Collection, as discussed in Bug 256450.
The decision to deprecate djbdns was primarily based on its status as
"unmaintained" and the precedent set by some linux distributions
removing it. However, as David Thiel pointed out, tinydns within
djbdns is still solid and widely used, and its removal is already
causing frustration among users. This indicates a significant user
base that still finds value in djbdns.
Furthermore, Leo Vandewoestijne raised an important point about the
relevance of djbdns, particularly its tinydns-data component, which is
still useful and can be integrated with other modern tools like
PowerDNS and dnsdist. This underscores the ongoing utility and
adaptability of djbdns in contemporary environments.
I, personally, found out about this unfortunate "bug resolution" when
I once again tried to install dgbdns as a nifty shortcut to have
daemontools correctly and easily installed and activated on my system.
Daemontools port does not do it by itself. This is just one example.
But djbdns is also valuable as a simple and dependable DNS server for
local networks where not being an "over engineered monstrosity" is
more valuable than strict compliance with all the latest trends and
standards.
There are NO good reasons to destroy the value gjbdns brings to users
of FreeBSD or to destroy value that numerous tips and manuals online
involving djbdns bring to FreeBSD users.
Also, philosophically, destroying good software in this fashion is
what Linux crowd often does for a variety of petty reasons and what
FreeBSD simply does not. FreeBSD is indeed valued for being stable,
dependable, reliable and to a large degree backward compatible. Let's
not ruin that!
Somehow, very reasonable objections voiced by Leo Vandewoestijne and
David Thiel were summarily ignored and the decision maker in this
matter has chosen to rely instead on an obvious logical fallacy
"appeal to the [linux] crowd" plus some misguided notions regarding
supposed obsolescence and lack of use of djbdns.
Additionally, Daniel Engberg somehow assigned the status of bug 256450
as "affects only me" which clearly cannot be further from the truth.
Alternatively, if the presence of djbdns port indeed somehow affects
only Daniel Engberg, then ruining thousands of setups and workflows of
many users just to fix something that affects only Daniel Engberg
appears to be all the more nonsensical.
Given these discussions and facts, I urge the community and Daniel
Engberg personally to reconsider the removal of djbdns. Its continued
usage and the integration with other tools demonstrate its enduring
relevance. Let's continue to support the diverse needs of our user
base by retaining this valuable software.
Thank you for considering this request. I look forward to our
community's continued commitment to supporting a wide range of
software needs while ensuring FreeBSD remains reliable, dependable and
backward compatible as much as possible.
Best wishes,
Vladimir Marchenko.
