From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Mar 5 21:53: 3 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from poboxer.pobox.com (unknown [208.149.16.42]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DE2D215068 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 21:52:56 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from alk@poboxer.pobox.com) Received: (from alk@localhost) by poboxer.pobox.com (8.9.2/8.9.1) id XAA30188; Fri, 5 Mar 1999 23:51:35 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from alk) From: Tony Kimball MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 23:51:34 -0600 (CST) X-Face: \h9Jg:Cuivl4S*UP-)gO.6O=T]]@ncM*tn4zG);)lk#4|lqEx=*talx?.Gk,dMQU2)ptPC17cpBzm(l'M|H8BUF1&]dDCxZ.c~Wy6-j,^V1E(NtX$FpkkdnJixsJHE95JlhO 5\M3jh'YiO7KPCn0~W`Ro44_TB@&JuuqRqgPL'0/{):7rU-%.*@/>q?1&Ed Reply-To: alk@pobox.com To: dcs@newsguy.com Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: base64 References: <14048.10089.598598.919239@avalon.east> <36E07AEC.101F3467@newsguy.com> X-Mailer: VM 6.43 under 20.4 "Emerald" XEmacs Lucid Message-ID: <14048.48864.918087.631128@avalon.east> Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Quoth Daniel C. Sobral on Sat, 6 March: : > : > This raises a good point: The base system should include mechanisms : > for MIME. It's rather basic. : : Why? It doesn't even include a decent mail reader. If you are going : to install a mail reader, anyway, you can install a mime extra... It is an issue of what the package is intended to be. I think of FreeBSD is more than a kernel. Some substantial portion of its appeal relative to Linux is that it is as a coherent OS, a general-purpose platform, which incorporates the necessary facilities for ordinary uses. As the set of ordinary uses changes over time, then in order for FreeBSD to remain that, its facilities must change over time. But perhaps FreeBSD does not intend to remain, without add-ons, a sufficient platform for general-purpose use. MHO: If the included mail reader is not 'decent', throw it away. Oh, replacing UCB mail is socially difficult, but such compunctions seem to be damaging the future of the product, its coherent vision, and its ability to keep up with the times. I still think FreeBSD should be packaged as a layered system, a group of functional complexes serving different areas. And sooner rather than later, for as it grows the components of what should be distinct modules become increasingly interdependent. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message