bash me, if you like

[Jeroen Ruigrok/asmodai]

-On [20031209 22:12], evs (erik14 at xxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
>I don't want to start a jihad here but, imho DragonFly should switch
>to bash as the default shell. 

Shell opinions always start jihads.

>I know csh ( and consequently its descendents tcsh & zsh ) is
>Berkeley's baby but, bash can do everything csh can do and its better
>for shell programming. Most new unix users arrive from the Linux camp
>these days so they already know bash and they will be more likely to
>try DragonFly if they don't have ot learn a new shell. Even Apple has
>switched to bash for OS X.

As far as I knew it OS X used zsh.  Might be that recent installations
use bash as default.

>Bash has won, and it's only a matter of time before csh goes the way
>of the dodo. Since Dragonfly is taking the lead in so many other
>areas, we might as well bite the bullet and do this too, as soon as
>possible.

I don't understand the principal reason that 'just because the masses
use bash DragonFly should go that way too'.

Some reasons why not to:

1) bash is GPL'd for all I know, integrating more and more GPL into a
   BSD licensed project could have us end up on the wrong side of the
   license some day.  It isn't a viral license for nothing.  Just follow
   recent lkm discussions about the kernel and modules.

2) the fact that Linux uses bash by default has only been done by the
   respective distributions.  I still see no advantage why this should
   be an incentive for us to move to bash.  Sheer mass of numbers would
   dictate we drop DragonFly and Linux altogether and go use Windows.

3) I'd rather have (t)csh removed from the system and replaced with ksh
   (which is commercial Unix typical) or rather set root to sh and leave
   users to install their own shell.  Saves a whole lot of discussion
   time and again. :)

Besides, that bash gets used so often might also say something about the
collective intelligence of the hordes now using Linux.  They have _no_
clue how to switch to other shells or even try others to see if they
like those.  I am betting these are the same people who also still use
the system supplied MTA and so on.

*shrug*

-- 
Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven <asmodai(at)wxs.nl> / asmodai / kita no mono
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http://www.tendra.org/   | http://www.in-nomine.org/~asmodai/diary/
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far...