>> ps - do you mind if i ask which part of my silly idea you object to
>> more?  is it the part where init uses the kernel as a bulletin board
>> so that anyone can find out what "state" the system is in?  or is it
>> the part where shutdown just tells init to change "state" and init
>> does the actually shutting down?
>
>It's the part where we provide mechanisms to do runlevels -- in
>kernel, in init, in anywhere.

oh, ok.  even though it changes nothing and you could truly ignore it?

you know...we could give them colors instead of numbers: blue for
single user, green for multi-user, orange for rebooting, red for
halting, and black for powering down.  would that be better?  :)

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