Re: first release date

[Nathan Hawkins <utsl@xxxxxxxx>]

Matthew Dillon wrote:
> :Yes, late in the month.  Would end-of-year may be feasible for
> :VFS/packaging?  That's a question for the folks working on it, which may be
> :better asked on, say, July 1st.
>
>     I've been thinking about packaging seriously for the last few days and
>     the more I think about it, the more I think we should just port Debian's
>     apt-get, enforce a multi-installed-version capability (e.g. for libraries),
>     and then focus on bringing patches into that framework.
>
>     We'll definitely not have a packaging system in the first release, but 
>     I think having something by the end of the year is doable (and a good
>     goal).
>
> 					-Matt
> 					Matthew Dillon 
> 					<dillon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>


I've been working on a port of Debian to FreeBSD (i.e. mostly Debian 
userspace with FreeBSD kernel, libc, /sbin and /usr/sbin) off and on for 
the last couple years. It was very educational, and it works fairly 
well, but has languished because of problems getting patches into both 
FreeBSD and Debian. :-(

If DF folks want to use apt-get, I can help, and possibly take on a 
major share of the work.


As for multi-installed-version capability: Debian's approach to 
libraries has always seemed to work well for me. There's always room for 
improvement, though.

The largest issues with Debian are release engineering, a little too 
much maintainer autonomy, and a real problem with getting people to 
maintain the critical packages instead of fluff. These are just normal 
organizational problems.  FreeBSD has them too, as I'm sure everyone 
here knows.

The technical stuff is pretty solid, and that's what DF should look at. 
  It is certainly a good place to start from and improve on.

	---Nathan