Installing a compiler by default

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Thu, Jun 08, 2006 at 08:39:59PM +0200, Ricardo Pérez López wrote:
> El jue, 08-06-2006 a las 11:02 -0700, Matt Zimmerman escribió:
> > 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.
> 
> Sometimes, those how-to documents doesn't work due to the lack of
> firmwares or already precompiled drivers, not for the lack of compilers.
> One example is the support for ADSL USB modems.

In every case I have seen, instructions can be given for finding the
firmware which are not specific to a distribution.  The upstream authors of
drivers are generally not interested in explaining the details of working
with a particular distribution; they want to provide instructions which work
for everyone, and this is difficult when the compiler isn't included.

> What about including the compiler into the installation CD, but don't
> installing it by default? The only difference between this case and the
> lack-of-compiler case could be a simple "sudo apt-get install gcc",
> getting the compiler from the CD and without the need for an internet
> connection.

We've done that since the very first release of Ubuntu.

-- 
 - mdz