[rescue] Anal-Retentiveness and Source Code

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

> I'm sorry to say it--but go for someone who's not a _vendor_, and they do
> alot better job.  A certain OS beginning with `D' comes to mind.

-Ending- with a D, very very good.  However, the only OS I can think of
that -begins- with a D plays the Stallman game[1] a little too much for
me.  I'm surprised he isn't lobbying for the "Solaris Software Companion"
to be called the "GNU/Solaris Conversion Pak" or somesuch.

Thanks, but no thanks.  It's either *BSD[2] or Solaris on my Sun boxen,
and -only- IRIX on my SGIs.  Actually, I'd take IRIX on everything, if I
could have it.

I've used Linux for about 7 years now, and have used all the major
distributions (keep going back to Slackware, though, for when I -need-
to run Linux), and it keeps reminding me of the Winchester mansion--never
finished.  So many good ideas in so many directions, but very few of them
get polished.  Stairways to nowhere, if you will.  If the only way to get
good out-of-the-box compiled free software is to get a half-assed 
operating environment, then I'll just burn CPU cylces in gcc and roll my
own Solaris packages.

...!

Actually, that'd not be a half-bad idea.  I'll actually be getting a
relatively swift SPARC "real soon now", so it might finally be feasible
for me to maintain my own up-to-date binary (pkg) distribution for the
stuff that I install almost-always.

--Jonathan
[1] I'd probably not dislike that lot so much (after all, they
    occasionally produce nice software) were it not for that I've tried
    hashing-out license compatibility scenarios with them for one of my
    projects.  They are arrogant and impossible to negotiate with.
[2] I lump SunOS 4.1.4 in that, as well.  The first SunOS and BSD-like
    Unix I ever met.