8:20 PM - (no subject)
mergemaster was patched over the weekend. It now correctly handles /etc changes.
Archite created a list of security areas where we can improve in the default install.
Most of my weekend was spent researching ports. I posted a perl port update that allows perl 5.8.8 to build with default options. Threaded perl is not guaranteed to work, etc. Quite a few things depend on perl building including the x11 port.
Archite is working on adding sudo to the default install.
We've received a lot of attention from GNUstep fans. I think my choice to include GNUstep is the right one.
I think I must clarifiy my position on licensing. Anything going into the kernel must be BSD licensed. Userland consists of software falling under several licenses. Creating a GUI environment on all BSD licensed software does not seem possible. I feel it is ok to use BSD or GPL software in an os environment, but do prefer BSD licensed software. I do not have a problem with binary blobs in drivers, but wish to avoid them when possible. I think OpenBSD has done some amazing work with their OSS drivers for WIFI, but as a desktop BSD I can not be so strict. I do hope code sharing between MidnightBSD and the other BSDs will remain possible in the future.
Here is an informal list of software I am considering for MidnightBSD:
GNUstep (almost in the bag)
Etoile (including their window manager)
Firefox
Thunderbird
aterm
The gimp
gaim
A selection of GNUstep basded software.
I have not decided on an office application. OpenOffice isn't exactly my favorite and its rather large. It also requires java for some functionality.
I've also received a lot of questions about the installation of MidnightBSD. The installer is hard to use and its a stumbling block. It will be replaced, but most likely not for .1 release. I'm 50/50 between a graphical installer using x11 and a command line installer like bsdinstaller. (DF, etc)
Ports are another hot topic. I'm at a crossroads with ports. FreeBSD style ports are tough to maintain. I would have to fork ports and improve them as I go. I don't personally have much interest in the ports infrastructure beyond a graphical management utility for end users similar to Fink on OSX or Ubuntu's add/remove features. pkgsrc from NetBSD is a possibility down the road. Right now it does not build. The GNU config project who maintains the config.sub and config.guess files has not patched for MidnightBSD yet. Any software using configure fails. The patch is simple enough. If you need to do this yourself for now, I suggest you look at FreeBSD or DragonFly's (especially DF) if its a recent copy of the files. You'll see the changes you need to make. Hopefully that project will patch soon. I've sent a patch to perl maintainers to add a midnightbsd.sh hints file to solve problems with that. FreeBSD's hints file will allow it to build provided you hack out the old entries and adjust version number checks. We are .1 and yet similar to 6.1 FreeBSD.
If someone wants to join the project and work on ports infrastructure I'll fork it. If someone wants to manage package builds and work with pkgsrc, I'll go that way. Frankly I don't want to work on ports. I have many other issues like the kernel, userland, and the gui environment to worry about. In the short term, I'll simply maintain a freebsd ports fork which will have dated and often non-building software. :(
You can check out our ports from cvs using "ports". portsnap will continue to point to freebsd ports for now and pkg_add -r will fetch from thier stable tree for now.
Archite created a list of security areas where we can improve in the default install.
Most of my weekend was spent researching ports. I posted a perl port update that allows perl 5.8.8 to build with default options. Threaded perl is not guaranteed to work, etc. Quite a few things depend on perl building including the x11 port.
Archite is working on adding sudo to the default install.
We've received a lot of attention from GNUstep fans. I think my choice to include GNUstep is the right one.
I think I must clarifiy my position on licensing. Anything going into the kernel must be BSD licensed. Userland consists of software falling under several licenses. Creating a GUI environment on all BSD licensed software does not seem possible. I feel it is ok to use BSD or GPL software in an os environment, but do prefer BSD licensed software. I do not have a problem with binary blobs in drivers, but wish to avoid them when possible. I think OpenBSD has done some amazing work with their OSS drivers for WIFI, but as a desktop BSD I can not be so strict. I do hope code sharing between MidnightBSD and the other BSDs will remain possible in the future.
Here is an informal list of software I am considering for MidnightBSD:
GNUstep (almost in the bag)
Etoile (including their window manager)
Firefox
Thunderbird
aterm
The gimp
gaim
A selection of GNUstep basded software.
I have not decided on an office application. OpenOffice isn't exactly my favorite and its rather large. It also requires java for some functionality.
I've also received a lot of questions about the installation of MidnightBSD. The installer is hard to use and its a stumbling block. It will be replaced, but most likely not for .1 release. I'm 50/50 between a graphical installer using x11 and a command line installer like bsdinstaller. (DF, etc)
Ports are another hot topic. I'm at a crossroads with ports. FreeBSD style ports are tough to maintain. I would have to fork ports and improve them as I go. I don't personally have much interest in the ports infrastructure beyond a graphical management utility for end users similar to Fink on OSX or Ubuntu's add/remove features. pkgsrc from NetBSD is a possibility down the road. Right now it does not build. The GNU config project who maintains the config.sub and config.guess files has not patched for MidnightBSD yet. Any software using configure fails. The patch is simple enough. If you need to do this yourself for now, I suggest you look at FreeBSD or DragonFly's (especially DF) if its a recent copy of the files. You'll see the changes you need to make. Hopefully that project will patch soon. I've sent a patch to perl maintainers to add a midnightbsd.sh hints file to solve problems with that. FreeBSD's hints file will allow it to build provided you hack out the old entries and adjust version number checks. We are .1 and yet similar to 6.1 FreeBSD.
If someone wants to join the project and work on ports infrastructure I'll fork it. If someone wants to manage package builds and work with pkgsrc, I'll go that way. Frankly I don't want to work on ports. I have many other issues like the kernel, userland, and the gui environment to worry about. In the short term, I'll simply maintain a freebsd ports fork which will have dated and often non-building software. :(
You can check out our ports from cvs using "ports". portsnap will continue to point to freebsd ports for now and pkg_add -r will fetch from thier stable tree for now.