Mike Stone said: > Perl is just another app. For most distributions, this is true. Proof: you can run those dists without perl.
For debian, however, Mike's statement is not valid. Proof: try to release debian without perl in any form. You're gonna find that perl happens to have been made essential to debian, not due to any intrinsic quality, but because some developers have chosen to use perl and perl scripts in maintainer scripts. This means that upgrading perl (whenever it is done) will need the same degree of care applied as for dpkg, dselect, boot-floppies, debian-cd and all other essential parts of debian infrastructure, and -not- that of "just another app". -Jim
