Re: Hmm... why?

On May 23, 2004, at 11:46 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:

> why does freebsd need a new installer? Why not allow the current=20
> installer "sysinstall" to just become user friendly..edit it and add=20=

> new things to it... possilby even adding a graphical interface that=20
> works with it. It's all possible and correct me if I'm wrong--wouldn't=20=

> it be less work? If sysinstall was just more userfriendly it would=20
> work very well.

Go give it a try.  Once you're done wrestling with the code for awhile=20=

in an effort to "just make it more user friendly", you can answer your=20=

own question.

> =A0As for porting a=A0 Linux installer to FreeBSD... I do not =
recommend=20
> it. there will be alot of conflict about the GPL vs. BSD licenses and=20=

> we all know what kind of war that starts. I personally think freebsd=20=

> should have its own installer under its own license.

I think you sell the FreeBSD community a bit short.  The issue is not=20
GPL vs BSD, and if there were a good, generic installation framework=20
that could be adapted to FreeBSD and was under the GPL, I don't think=20
people would blink twice at it.  The problem with the Linux installers=20=

isn't that they're GPL'd, it's that they're written to be very specific=20=

to the distribution they're installing and make a lot of assumptions=20
about low-level Linux-specific partitioning methods and such.

--
Jordan K. Hubbard
Engineering Manager, BSD technology group
Apple Computer
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