Why Are You NOT Using FreeBSD ?

[Chris Nehren]

On Mon, Jun 04, 2012 at 11:41:30 -0700 , Dave Hayes wrote:
> Yes there is...my point. :) Perhaps I was unclear. Optionsng is likely a
> fine project. However, it does not include the idea of extra
> documentation on the user selectable options provided to a port.
> 
> Often when building a port I am presented with a list of build options. 
> For example, virtualbox has this:
> 
>   OPTIONS=      QT4 "Build with QT4 Frontend" on \
>                 DEBUG "Build with debugging symbols" off \
>                 GUESTADDITIONS "Build with Guest Additions" off \
>                 DBUS "Build with D-Bus and HAL support" on \
>                 PULSEAUDIO "Build with PulseAudio" off \
>                 X11 "Build with X11 support" on \
>                 UDPTUNNEL "Build with UDP tunnel support" on \
>                 VDE "Build with VDE support" off \
>                 VNC "Build with VNC support" off \
>                 WEBSERVICE "Build Webservice" off \
>                 NLS "Native language support" on
> 
> What I feel is missing from ports is the information that would allow me
> to make intelligent decisions about each option. To see what's missing,
> consider the following questions:
> 
>  - Why would I want pulseaudio in a hypervisor? 
>  - What, exactly, are guestadditions and why would I want them? 
>  - Why does this need dbus and hal? 
>  - What is VDE? 
>  - What webservice? 
>  etc. 

The descriptions of the options assume the admin is familiar with the
software they're installing. I do not think it is the FreeBSD Project's
purview to document every option for every port. At the very least it'd
take quite a lot of time and effort to document all of that. Beyond
this, such explanations would duplicate each port's own documentation.
If you're not familiar with something, you very probably shouldn't be
installing it.

Show me one other similar packaging system that does this level of
handholding. The only comparable ones I can think of are portage and
macports, and they certainly don't, either.

-- 
Thanks and best regards,
Chris Nehren
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