Jeff Bonwick writes:
> I'm all for defending architectural purity when there's some
> fundamental principle at stake.  If there's one here, please
> enlighten me.

How about dumping all applications in /usr or just the root directory
itself?  Flatten it all out, and there's no need for discussion at
all.

The discussion isn't really about "purity."  It's about avoiding
clutter that ends up confusing users and making it _harder_ for them
to locate what they want.

As examples, /usr/sfw and /usr/ccs were clutter.  They were unexpected
and made things harder to find.  Real users thought that Sun shipped
the system without a functioning 'make' utility and without common
open source software.  I'm not sure whether /usr/benchmarks will
eventually be seen as more of the same -- it may be.

One of the unfortunate things about benchmark programs is that,
despite the unstable output, people just love to wrap them up with
ribbons and bows (see SunVTS and HCTS for two examples; there are many
others), and thus become dependent on the location.  That means we end
up with this nailed down once we make the decision.

So, yes, there is a reason to discuss this rather than just doing
"whatever" because we're facing VMware or some other monster.

-- 
James Carlson, Solaris Networking              <james.d.carlson at sun.com>
Sun Microsystems / 1 Network Drive         71.232W   Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757   42.496N   Fax +1 781 442 1677

Reply via email to