Re: Trim the Fat (Was: Re: Open 7.3 items )

On Wed, Jul 31, 2002 at 02:36:43PM -0300, Jeff MacDonald wrote:
> 
> When you install freebsd or linux, is it a problem that all the
> perl modules you need have to fetched from cpan ? why can't they
> call just be part of the OS ?'

Well, not just part of the OS, but part of Perl.  And after all, Perl
_does_ include a fabulous variety of built-in modules.

> likewise with dns servers, samba, apache etc.. this is a bit of a stretched
> example
> but the point is the same.

Actually, the comparison is apt.  There's a reason people suggest
using your distribution's PHP or Zope or what-have-you packages,
rather than installing from source: an inexperienced user with these
packages could easily spend several days trying to figure out all the
bits to install.  Obviously, such people are new users, and a
learning curve is expected.  But given recent hand-wringing about the
relative "mind-share" of Postgres &c., it seems perverse to make a
new user have to find out (probably by asking on a mailing list) that
basic stuff like client libraries are a whole separate package, which
needs to be dealt with separately.  It _would_ be nice, though, to be
able to get just the client stuff for sure.  And maybe the separation
is worth it; I just want to be sure that people know the effect on
users.

A

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