Installing a compiler by default

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Thu, Jun 08, 2006 at 01:26:20PM -0400, Lee Revell wrote:
> On Thu, 2006-06-08 at 09:44 -0700, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> > I would like to propose that, beginning in Edgy, Ubuntu desktop systems
> > (both live and installed) should, by default, include the set of packages
> > necessary to compile simple C programs and Linux kernel modules.
> > 
> 
> What specific use case do you have in mind?

A user requires a driver in order to make effective use of their hardware.
One is available, but it isn't included in Ubuntu for whatever reason (it
wasn't suitable for release at the time, or didn't support their particular
device yet, whatever).  How-to documents are available which explain
step-by-step how they can get up and running, but they don't work because of
the lack of a compiler.

> How common is it really for Joe User to have to compile a kernel module
> to get his hardware to work?

Common enough; search the forums or ubuntu-users or hang out on #ubuntu for
a while, and this comes up.

> Why can't it be solved upstream by getting the driver into the kernel?

There are various reasons why this isn't a magic bullet.  Upstream has
strict requirements on what they will include, and in general there is a lag
between the availability of new hardware and its support in stable,
release-quality distribution kernels.  There are also intellectual property
issues to consider in some cases, or simple lack of awareness of the
availability of a particular chunk of code.

> If the point is to compile kernel modules, doesn't that also require the
> full kernel source?

No.

-- 
 - mdz