Re: The case for FreeBSD

Peter Ross wrote:
> I would suggest to add a desktop option at the end of the installation
> ("Do you want to configure this machine as a desktop?") and then offer the
> package above and OpenOffice (including a language option)
> 

What if instead of making it an option on the main FreeBSD distribution 
we leave that to groups like FreeBSDIE. I know Scott touched on this 
awhile ago; I really liked the idea. I think it would be great for 
FreeBSD to work with groups like this in making the main FreeBSD code 
more receptive to these niche releases. If one group wants to maintain a 
"desktop" or "live CD" release, try and incorporate the ability to do so 
in the tree. Most of this would not even effect things like performance 
or interfere with others. I imagine it would come down to a lot of 
Makefile Magic and just giving the user a different set of choices on 
disc1.

Instead of trying to cater FreeBSD to every different type of user, make 
it easy to be catered by other developers. I think a large part of this 
could be filled by a new installer with well documented methods to 
change the default distribution. It's an area I really want to work on, 
but being that I've been in transition between jobs for awhile, I 
haven't had enough free time to do much more than make some notes.

I think it'd be amazing if we had All-In-One disks. For instance, a 
single CD designed to install a FreeBSD email server, or a Small 
Business Release, containing things like email server, DNS, 
file-sharing, web server. Put these on individual CDs that make it super 
easy to download and install. The only real difference in all of these 
is what packages get installed, nothing beyond that. I don't know if 
I've seen any Linux distributions do this (though I don't stay in touch 
with Linux development).

However, I DON'T think it should be the job of the _at_freebsd.org 
developers to maintain this assortment. I believe it would be better 
handled by individual groups. A certain amount of core support in the 
main distribution could be provided to make everyone's lives easier, but 
I don't imagine that being much beyond where we all hope the project is 
going.


-- 
Ryan Sommers
ryans_at_gamersimpact.com