RFC: -server packages universe demotions and main promotions

[Sebastian Kapfer]

On Sun, Jan 03, 2010 at 10:50:42AM -0800, J Jude wrote:
> Since demoting NIS seems to be decided, I decided to give LDAP a try.
> [...]
> What a pain to use!  Practical documentation is hard to find.  There is lots
> of information about the LDAP protocol, but not much in the way of how to
> replace NIS with LDAP.

Hi guys,

I'll have to second that.  With the current docs, setting up a NIS
domain is a matter of 30 minutes;  trying the same with LDAP left me a
burnt child cursing the Deconf wrappings of nss-ldap and puzzling data
formats of the LDAP server.  The docs and tools just aren't there and
the whole subject matter is several orders more arcane than NIS ever
was.

So, in short, I still see uses for NIS, if only in a controlled
environment (e.g. VPN or closed LAN).  Furthermore, this is an
interoperability issue, both with fellow Unices als clients and servers,
and I strongly feel Ubuntu should support this with a NIS package in
main.

IMHO NIS falls in the same category as awk and ed, it is a basically
finished piece of software which does what it is supposed to do.  It
being dead upstream or (by design) not supporting a specific scenario is
not an excuse for dropping support.

That being said, proposing to demote NIS and in the same mail promoting
an implementation of the ident protocol strikes me as odd.

Many Greetings,
  Sebastian