From: vince@halcyon.com (Vince Skahan)
Subject: Re: Whining...I don't want to hack on the kernel
Organization: Northwest Nexus Inc. (206) 455-3505
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 06:37:22 GMT

without getting into the aspect of (alleged) whining, I have a somewhat more
technical question...

assuming that somebody makes available an up-to-date kernel, do you have to
do anything more complicated to use 'rdev /dev/hd__' to set the location of
the / partition with a generically available kernel ?

I guess I was figuring that a kernel, maybe either a /usr/src/linux/system
file or a psdatabase for running ps -U, and it would be Miller Time...

hell, there'll be more noise in this thread than the cost of a uuencoded
patched kernel every couple/few weeks posted to c.o.l.  with pointers to
where to grab the sources if you're a source code zealot :-)

[...semi-soapbox on...]

There *ARE* people who want to investigate Linux as an out-of-the-box
unix system that they can do stuff with, and who are quite willing 
(and grateful) to have somebody get their jollies by compiling all the 
sources and making a kit that they can use (to get their jollies by getting
their application(s) running, serving as real-world users and testers, etc.).

I guess it bugs me that the folks who want a stable o/s and compiler
that they can use to build (or port) software get pounded on in c.o.l.
as being 'beneath' the folks who are building functionality into the
kernel.  Both are equally valid users of the o/s.

The guys who have built the various canned installable sets of goodies
such as mcc-interim, SLS, the 'rootimage' disk, etc. have done a great
job.  I'm willing to use the fruits of their labor (as a very grateful
user) and spend my limited time trying to port the stuff I want to
run, or to put all the pieces together as a system that does something
I want it to do. 

Building kernels is not necessarily great fun.  Once you do a few, it
gets kind'a boring doesn't it?  I think making patched compiled kernels
available to stick over the latest mcc-interim (or whatever) is a great
idea.

I don't *WANT* to be the local expert in all the obscure non-standard
gcc flags, just so I can build a darn program.  I want plug'n'play tools
that I can assemble (ie...mcc-interim+new_kernel+mailpak+perl) to get
something (that's important to me) accomplished relatively stably and
painlessly.  I'm willing to lend a hand if I got somewhere first
(I ported 'Waffle' to linux for example and posted the details and
kicked to diffs back to the author for inclusion in the 'real' product),
but I'm also very willing to use mailpak, etc. and say "thanks!!!".

The fact that those folks did a great job doing their parts in no
way means that I'm less of a valid user for saying "thanks a million"
and using their results.  The folks doing kernel/X/compiler development
are working hard and doing great...but so are the people doing real world
torture testing as users of the binaries, the installation scripts, the
man pages, etc.  They're just as important...

[...semi-soapbox off...]


-- 
          Vince Skahan				vince@halcyon.com (here)
    vince@atc.boeing.com (work)		    vince@victrola.sea.wa.us (home)

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