[1691] in SIPB_Linux_Development
Re: Redhat 4.2/Linux-Athena
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Erik Nygren)
Wed Jun 4 13:06:00 1997
To: Derek Atkins <warlord@MIT.EDU>
Cc: Erik Nygren <nygren@MIT.EDU>, Chris Murphy <chris@MIT.EDU>,
linux-dev@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: Your message of "04 Jun 1997 10:27:47 EDT."
<sjm3eqymoik.fsf@charon.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 04 Jun 1997 13:06:02 EDT
From: Erik Nygren <nygren@MIT.EDU>
> We already discussed this on linux-dev, at length. I was fairly sure
> we had consensus to move to an SRVD model.
This was certainly not the impression that I had and was agreeing
to. Although I'd like to see a SRVD, I think allowing people
to install small portions of Linux-Athena is more important.
Examples of what I think is critical that people be able to do easily:
- I need kerberized telnet to get into Athena from a
remote site, so I grab just that one RPM and install it
(and possibly the one or two that it depends on).
- I have a laptop which is only connected to Athena occasionally,
so I just install kerberos and zephyr on it.
- I have a 2.1.x SMP or other WeirdShitHardware[tm] machine in
my lab. I want to be able to run zephyr on it, but running
AFS just isn't an option.
I strongly believe that packages should remain mostly as they are, but
that we should find a way to make SRVD's an option. (Such as packages
full of symlinks.) One option would be to always make RPMs available,
but to use the SPM system as the default way of installing things.
But there really needs to be a way to easily install portions of the
system *without* having to get AFS working (or even without being
connected to the network). The ability to do this is actually one of
the primary reasons I use Linux-Athena rather than NetBSD-Athena.
Having a way to use a SRVD should be an option, but disk space is
cheap enough and networks are slow enough that it shouldn't be either
the default, or the mode that the system is designed around, IMHO.
Erik
