Re: OS X packaging is an embarrassment

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From: Luke Kanies
Subject: Re: OS X packaging is an embarrassment
Date: 19:29 on 21 May 2006
On Sat, 20 May 2006, Peter da Silva wrote:

> They pulled this with the Intel Mac mini too, I've already beaten this
> hate into submission.
>
> But then hating Apple hardware is something I've been embarrassing
> Apple fans with for years now. Their last real desktop, for example,
> was the Beige G3... and no I don't want Apple relieving me of the
> burden of buying my own ugly monitor, or buying video cards, thank you
> very much.

Yeah -- why wasn't the G5 just slightly larger than a mini?  The largest
tower available with the least expandability?  Thanks.

> As for OSX packaging... it's not a "package system" like the BSD ports
> system, but then neither is RPM, and neither were Debian packages for
> many years. I have been told Debian packages have gotten to the point
> where you can just install a package and have it automatically pull in
> everything it needs, but that sure wasn't the case back when I was
> actively looking at switching to Linux in the '90s, and it sure as hell
> wasn't the case for Red Hat last June.

I stupidly posted this to my blog instead of this list a while back:

http://madstop.com/articles/2006/04/05/freebsd-is-an-embarrassment

I've since come to the conclusion that FreeBSD's ports system is apparently
great for those people who like to do everything manually, but it's like
kryptonite for anyone trying to automate.  I am absolutely convinced it is
the least automatable *nix OS available.  Yes, it's true, you literally
cannot use the provided tools to automate package management -- I'm lucky
that both they and my management tools are written in Ruby, or I'd basically
just have to give up.

If I were continuing to build my own company (I just joined another), I
would charge at least 1.5x support rates for FreeBSD.  "Services?  What are
those?  Non-interactive package installation?  Who would do that?  1983 was
freaking awesome, and I'm never leaving."

-- 
If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is
doing the thinking.    -- Lyndon B. Johnson
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Luke Kanies | http://reductivelabs.com | http://madstop.com

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