On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 00:25:26 +0200 Alan McKinnon <alan.mckin...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 25/03/2014 22:08, »Q« wrote: > > On Fri, 21 Mar 2014 06:37:20 -0400 > > Tanstaafl <tansta...@libertytrek.org> wrote: > > > >> On 3/20/2014 5:48 PM, »Q« <boxc...@gmx.net> wrote: > >>> Why should Gentoo have a default? > >> > >> Defaults are always a good idea - as long as they are reasonable > >> and rational. > > > > In that case, Gentoo is missing a lot of "good" things, from a > > default system logger to a default desktop environment. > > > > AFAICS, the benefit of defaults, provided they're reasonable, is > > that they remove the burden of making choices from the user. But I > > keep reading that Gentoo is all about user choice. > > You are conflating two things, it's actually quite disingenuous. > > Gentoo provides choice so you can do what you want. That doesn't > preclude providing a default that suits people who see no need to make > *that* choice for *them*, particularly when the thing being chosen is > necessary or almost so. Of course it doesn't preclude that; I'm sorry if implied that it did. > >>> ISTM the only good reason is that not having a default would make > >>> the documentation a lot more complicated. > >> > >> Documentation, *and* the install process itself. > > > > I'm not seeing that at all. > > You have to have *something* to be pid 1. the stage 3 might as well > provide one of those somethings that suits the common case > > You can make it /bin/bash if you want, but that would be a very niche > usage. The large majority of new installs will want a conventional > init system whether SysVinit-based or systemd based. Traditionally > SysVinit was the only real contender and baselayout/openerc were > originally written for Gentoo. So those are still the defaults. > > Without a default, the user must set one up manually for things to > work at all on first reboot. The install docs try hard to get the user > through the necessary steps to get a bootable system, a lot of effort > went into making the steps to accomplish that fewer, no more Requiring the fewest possible number of choices to get to a bootable system is a much better argument for a default than "defaults are always good".
