>rc.d crap and stick in real rc's again. This rc.d thing i can _only_ see 
>as an attempt to appease the linux-familiar and slolaris-familiar folks who

Oh please, if you'd ever administered a large number of machines spread
across multiple sites - that need an multi-hour flight to reach, and
not all sites had a "guru" on hand, you would appreciate the benefit
that being able to tell the "janitor" over the phone 
"type /etc/rc.d/foo restart" and having a good chance that the right things 
will happen represents.  Don't know about you, but being called at 4am
about something that a "janitor" could (should be able to) fix, ceased to
be "interesting" a very long time ago.

Its for that reason alone that I implemented rc.d style startup on SunOS
and NetBSD years before it finally appeared in our tree.

Neither I nor (as far as I know) the guys who implemented the current rc.d
stuff give a toss about attracting users from anywhere, we care only about
making our life/job saner.

You are most welcome to continue using whatever startup scripts float your
boat, but please don't ascribe rediculous motives for features which you
fail to see a benefit in.

--sjg