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Date:      Fri, 9 Apr 1999 22:28:33 -0500
From:      Alan Weber <aaweber@austin.rr.com>
To:        doc@freeBSD.org
Cc:        advocacy@freeBSD.org
Subject:   FreeBSD Solutions Cookbook (proposal)
Message-ID:  <19990409222832.A12535@austin.rr.com>

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I have a suggestion for a new kind of document that would parallel the 
Handbook and FAQ. I am suggesting that a "COOKBOOK" be created with 
"RECIPES" for common FreeBSD applications. I am listing below some of the
types of recipes that I am thinking of:

1. Web Server
   FreeBSD 3.1 
   Apache 1.3.4 (variants with FP/SSL, etc.)

2. Dialup Gateway
   FreeBSD 3.1 
   PPP -alias -auto
   Bind 8.x Caching/Local DNS
   DHCPD (optional)

3. CableModem Gateway
   FreeBSD 3.1, 
   ISC DHCLIENT, 
   NATD, 
   Bind 8.x Caching/Local DNS

4. DataBase Server
   FreeBSD 3.1
   MySQL/POSTGRES/ORACLE(LINUX)/SOLID/etc.
   ODBC clients 

5. Secondary DNS
   FreeBSD 3.1
   Bind 8.x

6. File Server
   FreeBSD 3.1 
   Samba 
   Bind 8.x
   DHCPD (optional)

7. Mail Server
   FreeBSD 3.1
   SendMail/qmail/etc.
   Bind 8.x

8. Dial-up Gateway
   FreeBSD 3.1
   PPP  

9. Desktop Workstation
   FreeBSD 3.1
   XFREE
   WindowMaker
   Netscape
   StarOffice
   Word Perfect
   GIMP

10.Game server.
   FreeBSD 3.1
   Quake/etc.

11.Proxy Server
   FreeBSD 3.1
   Squid

12.Installation Server with FTP installable -Stable for local
   replication on a local network.

I used to use the electronic cookbooks for various projects where 
you would just buy the apropriate parts and assemble some device
or sub-assembly. No theory or intimate knowledge of electronics 
was required, just the ability to follow directions. My thinking
here is to provide a quick start mechanism for new users where 
they would have a working solution and then could begin to 
extend the solution by adding other software or implementing 
other recipes. 

Since UNIX software is driven by text files, I am hoping that 
the recipes would essentially be collections of configuration
files with directions on how to edit them for a given recipe.
One of the strengths of this approach is that the recipe would 
only require the download of a very small tarball that would
drop in place on all the files that would need editing in a
small package. Hopefully, since these are configuration files
they would be longer lived than the specific version that 
they start with. There have been several suggestions in the 
mailing lists for the Install program to create these kind
of configurations, however since sysinstall is a program and 
has to work in a floppy booted environment updating these
kind of things and keeping bloat down seem to point to a 
web/ftp based cookbook instead. A centralizied cookbook would
keep the proliferation of FreeBSD web sites with this kind 
of information scattered across the net and difficult to find.
I had thought of creating a book that could sell in the stores
but I am of the opinion that the book would get stale too 
quickly and would have to point to a web site to stay 
current anyway. Eventually a clever person could create 
scripts to ask some questions and cook the recipe. I am still
too new to FreeBSD/Unix to implement a script approach and 
eventually the COOK would have to tune the configuration so 
having the files edited by hand may be better as a teaching 
tool.

I would prefer that the recipes could be created from working 
systems. In some ways this would be like the contributed 
themes for desktops from individuals systems. 

Some RECIPES could eventually have several variations such 
as CableModem Gateway might have @Home, RoadRunner, etc. 
variants. The Data base server lends itself to a variant for 
each data base. 

Where this would differ from the Linux HOW-TOs is in that 
the specific recipe would talk about coordinating the edits
of the configuration files so that everything would work 
together. I have been following the commentary on questions
and people often ask for a prepackaged solution that cannot
be easily packaged as FAQ answer. Month after month, people
ask the same questions about the interactions among various
pieces of software and hardware. There would be minimum and 
recommended hardware configurations targeted to each of the
recipes, perhaps scaled to various size solutions. I am 
assuming that when software is required, that a install
of a port would be directed and that the sequence of 
installing the component pieces would be given to 
minimize installation interactions. I have gone through
a considerable amount of research each time I have 
implemented a FreeBSD solution and would like to have
had some canned solution each time. This would remove some
of the hurdle required to bring a FreeBSD solution into 
an organisation and I don't see something similar in the
Linux or M$ side of things (except via expen$ive consultants).

If I am resurecting/recreating a long discarded idea, I 
would like to know what was the previous reasons for this
kind of thing not coming to fruition. I may be assuming 
that this simplistic description of the project is doable
in a real world of complexity and change. 

-- 
When I was a kid I had to rub sticks together to multiply and divide numbers. 
A calculator was a job description.


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