Re: ideas 3

[Gary Thorpe <gathorpe79@xxxxxxxxx>]

Chris Palmer wrote:
> Ed writes:
>
>
> > What about creating a few kernel config files for common systems ?
> > NetBSD does something like that with GENERIC, LAPTOP, SMALL,...
>
>
> I much prefer the OpenBSD approach. OpenBSD ships GENERIC only (although
> there are alternate config files present in the source distribution).
> The GENERIC kernel contains all the hardware drivers and other features
> that the developers feel are stable, and as a result the GENERIC kernel
> works properly on most machines. Every so often somebody will want
> AppleTalk or an experimental hardware driver, and so they have to make
> their own kernel. This is a rare occurence.
>
> This reduces the support burden on the developers/user community, and
> reduces the work users have to do to get a working system. The only cost
> is that the kernel is somewhat larger than strictly necessary, but it's
> hard to demonstrate that that is the limiting factor in performance.

I don't think he is suggesting that Dragonfly ships pre built kernels 
with alternate configuration files. What he wants is just the 
configuration _files_ for typical setups. Of course the GENERIC kernel 
in NetBSD fits your description, yet NetBSD also provides alternative 
configuration _files_ so that users have starting points from varying 
typical systems.