cvs commit: src/sys/boot/powerpc/loader conf.c

[Marcel Moolenaar]

On Wed, Dec 10, 2003 at 09:05:18AM -0800, David O'Brien wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 10, 2003 at 09:25:38PM +1000, Peter Grehan wrote:
> > >What is missing for PowerPC to become a complete Tier-1 platform?
> > 
> >  My thoughts on a minimal list before it could become a candidate are:
> > 
> >  - sysinstall
> >  - self-hosted make release to create bootable CDs
> >  - gdb
> >  - syscons
> >  - XFree86
> >  - kld
> >  - ADB kbd/mouse support for notebooks
> 
> Most important thing left out -- stability.  Along with being able to
> repoduce your bits from CVS.

Not to start an argument, but I actually found that usability is
more important that stability when getting a platform off the
ground. The reason is that stability is mostly a kernel internal
focus whereas usability excersises all interfaces. Hence, being
stable does not mean anything WRT stability of interfaces, but
being usable or functional complete does. Instability can be
fixed without having to change interfaces (most likely).  I
found that getting to a state of being usable I frequently had
to revisit code I thought was good. Getting gdb working is one
of those activities that resulted in some ABI breaking changes
for example.

A second reason for usability is that it's a good motivational
booster. A stable OS that can only do buildworlds is not much
fun. It's really cool to be able to surf the net with mozilla
that's running on the machine you've been working on :-)

Anyway: there's no single recipe. Have a plan, execute it and
have fun. Tierness is for the masses :-)

YMMV,

-- 
 Marcel Moolenaar	  USPA: A-39004		 marcel at xcllnt.net