[indiana-discuss] what's next?

[elw at stderr.org]

> I just went to Sun Tech Days in DC, for a few hours of OpenSolaris 
> talks.  One of the Sun kernel engineers hinted at a vague roadmap they 
> were working on for the future of Solaris package management.  The point 
> he made that stuck with me was that they were considering a move away 
> from patches in favor of drop-in replacements, a la RPM et al. So far we 
> have been discussing the future of "package" packages. Should we also be 
> discussing the future of "patch" packages?

probably.

I don't really like the way that 'patches' are handled on **ANY** 
platform, at the moment.  They're all too often either monolithic and 
destructive, or they do "weird things" to preexisting packages that are 
difficult to figure out.

I don't want to go down a road that leads to having patches like 118833-36 
- a 40-50 MB patch that replaces the solaris kernel and a whole heck of a 
lot of the userland - if it can be helped.  That's not a patch - it is a 
box of band-aids.

--elijah