Author: Robert Black Date: To: exim-users Subject: Re: exim's OS/Makefile-Linux
If Philip were to change the default configuration for Linux to fit in with the
fsstnd then surely he should also change the configurations for other operating
systems to fit in with their default ways of working. I can see several
problems with this.
First, what you gain by having things in 'the obvious place' for the operating
system you lose in a multi-platform environment by having things in
OS-dependant places. This suggests that the Right Thing to do from a 'least
surprise' perspective is use a package directory with links as desired.
Second, each of these has to be maintained as the various vendors change their
minds about how the operating system should be configured. This would take up
Philip's valuable time which I would much rather see him put into extra
functionality. Speaking from personal experience, the task of managing ports of
a single package to half a dozen operating systems is no joke.
An important consideration when deciding what to do here is Philip's intended
target group of users. If he is targetting large sites then the appropriate
defaults are potentially quite different from what they are if he is trying to
make exim trivial to install for people with no previous experience of
computers (I'm sure that he would love to do both, given an infinite amount of
time and money). This is not a problem because the GNU GPL allows for third
parties who want to prepare alternative distributions for different target
audiences.
