>> Ramming your idea of the right way down everyone's throat is not
>> exactly an ideal way to make converts either.

> Hold it.  Whose throat is being rammed here?

Those who use -current, and presumably as of next mainline release,
everyone.

> Certainly not "everyone's".  If the recent postings are
> representative, yours and a couple others.

No; *everyone* is getting "this is the way it will be. deal.".  Just
because some people like the taste doesn't mean it isn't being shoved
down their throats.

>> As I remarked recently in private mail, I'm not even sure that rc.d
>> itself is necessarily that bad; I don't expect it to be pleasant,
>> but I might have been willing to try it and see.  But when NetBSD
>> evidences this much willingness to ditch what I used to think it
>> stood for and lunge precipitously in the direction of supporting the
>> masses at the expense of the niche they used to satisfy so well, I
>> have no reason to think it will stop here.

> "this much willingness" ??  After how many false starts, floundered
> debates, and other political stalemating?  How hard did they try to
> reach a consensus before finally doing this?

It doesn't matter, for the purposes of my point in this paragraph, why
or how the Project took this step.  It is still a step - or, as I see
it, more like a vertiginous lunge - away from the niche I feel a part
of and towards, well, being Just Another OS catering to the mindless
masses.  As of now, it's still also trying to be of some use to people
with clues.  I fully expect that within a few years it'll be saying
things like "sysinst does it right, so we don't need to document this
install gotcha"; the "you don't need to know" statements greywolf and I
have made so much noise about strike me as the first visible signs
thereof.

> I think they deserve a heckuva lot more credit than you're giving
> them here.

Credit for what?  I believe they are doing a good job of serving the
clientele they want to serve.  The problem is, that isn't the clientele
I'm part of, the clientele I saw them as trying to serve when I first
found NetBSD and thought it was a good OS for me.  (Perhaps this was
nothing more than wishful thinking on my part back then; I don't know.
I've never seen any sort of overt statement of what clientele NetBSD is
trying to serve, so it's hard to tell whether it's changed.)

I don't, on the other hand, credit them with doing anything for "my"
niche, because I don't think they *are* doing anything for it.

>> Indeed, I fully expect it to continue until it's just another
>> point-and-drool free unix variant, distinguished from FreeBSD
>> largely by the hardware it supports, and Linux by that and the GPL.

> I understand you're disillusioned, but your arguments are really
> reaching now.  Taking things to the logical extreme as if it is going
> to wake up the fencesitters; come on.

I'm not trying to wake up the fencesitters.  I'm actually not sure why
I'm still discussing the issue.

It's quite clear to me by now that the Project *doesn't* want to serve
that niche, which doesn't leave me much reason to stick around.  I
suppose I've still got some slight hope left that I'm wrong in my
inference that the Project has decided to head in a direction I will
not enjoy following.  And there's probably also the desire to be
understood; there seem to be a few people who are still trying to
understand why this is such a big issue for me.  And, too, it's not
easy to let go of something that I've put this much dedication and
energy into for so long, even when shown that's what I have to do.

And I am quite, quite through with trying to trim and twist myself to
fit into the Project somewhere.  I used to be willing to do that,
because NetBSD gave me much and I was trying to fit in enough to give
back.  I've now been shown clearly that the Project doesn't care about
that, which, while logically unsurprising (I am not a major contributor
of anything but iconoclastic comments), does mean I no longer see any
point in myself caring, in trying to fit in or give back.

Gods, it's lonely being different.

> [...] as if giving any sort of ground whatsoever would open the doors
> to reversing the decision.

...and heaven knows we couldn't risk *that*.

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
		     7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39  4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B