build-essential

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Sat, Sep 04, 2004 at 11:46:43AM +1000, Jeff Waugh wrote:

> You may be right, but this is not in keeping with the 'greatest common
> factor' intent of the desktop seed. Why have it there at all if the users
> won't be using it?

Quite simply, because _many_ of them will use it, and the rest _don't
notice_.  This isn't disrupting the desktop, or affecting it in any way
whatsoever.  There are plenty of packages in Desktop that aren't used by
_all_ users, just _many_.

> Plus, to do anything really useful with a compiler, you need a bunch of
> other tools. I would far prefer to see that whole set installed when you
> click "Developer Toolkit" or whatever, than have half-and-half available,
> but not entirely useful to anyone.

Given nothing but build-essential and the kernel-headers package for your
kernel (which will be at least in ShipSeed as well), you can build a device
driver to get your hardware working, something that at this stage in Linux
history a great many users still need to do.

I think I've made the case in favour of a compiler fairly clear, but I don't
understand your argument against it.

-- 
 - mdz