Re: [gentoo-dev] reason for dhcpcd in system profile ?

[Kevyn Shortell]

On Sun, 2003-08-24 at 08:09, Brad Laue wrote:

> Bell Canada's Sympatico service started out as the driving force behind
> the development of PPPoE clients under Linux, and the past two releases
> of both Mandrake and RedHat have in fact included built-in support and
> configuration frontends that enable a user to get online with minimal
> hassle.

While it's a popular favorite of Canada, I know a lot of people in the
US who aren't as fond of it as you are. And Mandrake and RedHat also
include dhcp client support. I'm not saying rip out pppoe. I'm saying we
should include what is required to get someone on the net as part of the
base system. Thats ANY network. Not just Canada's PPPoE network.

> Re: the sanity of choosing DHCP over PPPoE, the main perceived drawback
> is the dynamic IP. This is a management issue - PPPoE is as capable of
> delivering a static IP to the user as standard PPP is. As for
> encapsulation overhead, 1meg and 3meg service render this unnoticeable
> to the user (it may perhaps be 'less efficient' from a purist
> standpoint, but these are residential connections we're talking about).

Never cared why they chose it. If you want to go the technical purist
standpoint, PPPoE is the spawn of satan. If it works for the customer
however, I don't see an issue. The whole if it works use it thing. =)
>
> At any rate, seeing as both PPPoE and DHCP are not as universal as
> ethernet (which requires the presence of such utilities as ifconfig in
> the basic system), and are both really fast emerges, wouldn't they
> contribute to a nice small base system? They seem more reasonable
> choices than some of the other suggestions I'm seeing.

I would still have to disagree. Most places I've worked at, or school
at, still used DCHP on ethernet. I've only ever had to use PPPoE once.
Only one place I've ever worked at handed out static IP's internally to
employees, there is no need. DHCP works perfectly in that enviroment.
>
> > I agree that pruning the base system is probably a good idea, but why
> > look at basic network components that atleast half of our users require
> > in order to get their machine on the net?
>
> Because they're options, and options are not defaults. :P

Your right, networking is an option, I hadn't realized that. Thank you
for pointing it out. Lets just rip out ifconfig, dhcpcd, pppoe, and tell
everyone to use GRP CD's cause that fad called a network is dead. 

>
> Brad

Kevyn