Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 18:57:51 -0500 From: Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org> To: Pete Slagle <freebsd-stable@box559.com> Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org, Kris Kennaway <kris@obsecurity.org> Subject: Re: GENERIC and DEFAULTS Message-ID: <20051031235751.GA34385@xor.obsecurity.org> In-Reply-To: <4366ACF0.20606@box559.com> References: <E1EWUlt-000B8i-Fm@cs1.cs.huji.ac.il> <20051031082807.GA68204@xor.obsecurity.org> <4366ACF0.20606@box559.com>
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--uAKRQypu60I7Lcqm Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 03:46:56PM -0800, Pete Slagle wrote: > >>i agree 100%, i hate wizardy/black-magic, and this 'fix' falls in that > >>class. Why was a 5ton hammer used to fix non existing problem? > >>a small comment like 'you better keep these lines to make X happy' > >>would have sufficed. > > > > > >You've clearly never spent much time on the FreeBSD support forums, > >where every few days someone posts for help > > > >1) with an error caused by removing one of those "Do not remove this!" > >lines, and > > > >2) for help on getting X working when they forgot to add /dev/io and > >/dev/mem to their kernel. > > > >Those of us who spend a lot of time answering such questions will > >surely welcome the change, since it will hopefully reduce our > >workload. >=20 > Abundant thanks and sympathy are due to the generous souls that staff=20 > the support forums. That said, it is far from clear that ease-of-use=20 > considerations are the most important factor. >=20 > Freedom to not have the O/S second guess one's choices, or worse,=20 > silently override them, is one of the main differentiators between=20 > FreeBSD and other available operating systems. Many (most?) of us are=20 > here because we do not want excessive complexity and hand holding. Let's= =20 > not give away the fundamental character of FreeBSD in an (undoubtedly=20 > futile) attempt to make it idiot-proof. >=20 > This is a small case in itself, but it represents a much larger issue=20 > concerning future direction. It doesn't silently override them, you can remove the defaults with appropriate nodevice settings. However, I bet you don't even want to build a kernel without npx, mem or io support, so you're just arguing for the sake of it. kris --uAKRQypu60I7Lcqm Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFDZq9/Wry0BWjoQKURAqeLAJ9Xf66okoXHqujkpMdhsJ1BV7RKQwCg3s/x 7KSwGi0VQWwb1L5LIBYe0Zg= =kUk6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --uAKRQypu60I7Lcqm--
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