> I su'd to root in my home directory, typed pkg_add to install a large
> pkg...it ran out of space in /tmp, said it was "cleaning up".  Next
> thing I know, it removed the entire contents of my home directory.

This makes me damn glad I've never gone near the package tools.

Software that tries to do everything for me is far too prone to getting
it wrong.  (Most such failures are not quite this spectacular, but that
has nothing to do with the principle.)  This is why I loathe SGI's inst
and similar systems...

...and why, when the package system was being discussed, I argued that
packages should not need the package tools to unpack them.

There has been discussion recently of splitting the installation sets
up into packages with sub-packages and contained packages and all sorts
of hair like that.  The day I can't install without having to use the
package tools is very probably the day I freeze my systems wrt the
Project's releases.

I got involved with NetBSD because it ran on the systems I wanted to
use and looked like a fun system to hack on.  There has been much
discussion recently about how we "must" become more friendly to the
semi-clued crowd (usually wrt first-time installs) and we "must" become
more suited to "production" environments (though there seems to be
disagreement over just what that means).

I don't *want* a "production" OS.  I don't *want* software that holds
my hand and keeps me away from the machine because someone else might
have gotten confused otherwise.

Perhaps NetBSD will become user-obsequious and "production"-oriented.
If so, many people will doubtless consider it a success - and it will
have lost me, because it will have lost what it had that drew me to it.

					der Mouse

			       mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca
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