Hi Philip!
> I've noticed that there seems to be a fair amount of dislike for IPS > which leaves me puzzled. On paper IPS sounds great and I know that > some serious thought, engineering and math went into the design of > IPS. True. > I also know that despite the claims of SVR4 packaging fans that > SVR4 packages have their own limitations--especially when it comes > to patching systems. I don't think any SVR4 "fans" as you put it have ever claimed that SVR4 packages don't have any limitations. > (Fortunately my own scars from my days of > packaging software for Solaris faded long ago and only dim memories > of those days remain. :-) Well, if you know what you're doing it's actually fun. ;-) > I'm particularly curious as I know one of the engineers who worked > on IPS and he's one of the smartest people I've ever met. There is no question that these people are very smart, and a lot of effort went into IPS. > Are the objections to IPS centered on its design or implementation, > or both? I would say both. Also, the attitude towards criticism, at least in the various mailing lists played an important role. You want a scripting hook similar to SVR4 CAS or the postinstall script? Too dangerous, denied. You don't like Python, or think it's too slow? Python is Gods Own Language (TM), nothing else will do. What, you want the object timestamps preserved after package installation? We don't need no stinking timestamps... A file format for packages? Just set up a repo. Etc. etc. Also, Sun made one big mistake providing SVR4 tools on IPS-based distros. They should have focused more on decent pkg migration tools, especially for the active content, instead of supporting the old format. Then ISP adoption would have been much faster. I do admit that things have gotten better (performance is up, we now have a file format, etc). I use both SVR4 and IPS, and both have their shortcomings and advantages. IMHO there should be Illumos-based distros with both flavors. Regards -- Volker -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Volker A. Brandt Consulting and Support for Oracle Solaris Brandt & Brandt Computer GmbH WWW: http://www.bb-c.de/ Am Wiesenpfad 6, 53340 Meckenheim, GERMANY Email: v...@bb-c.de Handelsregister: Amtsgericht Bonn, HRB 10513 Schuhgröße: 46 Geschäftsführer: Rainer J.H. Brandt und Volker A. Brandt "When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead" ------------------------------------------- illumos-discuss Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/182180/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/182180/21175430-2e6923be Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21175430&id_secret=21175430-6a77cda4 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
