Why do I need mDNSResponder/howl?

[Paul Howarth]

Dave wrote:
> On Friday 14 January 2005 12:44 am, Paul Howarth wrote:
> 
>>On Thu, 2005-01-13 at 13:50 -0800, Dave wrote:
>>
>>>Yet another one. I thought only microsoft installed network services
>>>willy-nilly without any regard for whether they're needed.
>>>
>>>'Howl is a cross-platform port of Apple's "Rendezvous" (multicast DNS)
>>>service discovery and IP autoconfiguration.'
>>>
>>>So ... when was I asked if I even needed/wanted this? How many people
>>>actually use it? Why does it default to being activated?
>>
>>Because for some people it will make their network work automagically,
>>saving them the bother of configuring it? Isn't plug-and-play what most
>>people want?
> 
> 
>  Absolutely ... but shouldn't there be SOME thought given to not installing 
> willy nilly active network services when they're not needed? Or asking the 
> user during install? 
> 
> By this logic, why bother doing any hardware probing at all during install? 
> Just install EVERYTHING because somebody might take their x86 hard drive, and 
> move it to a PowerPC machine without changing anything, or magically wake up 
> one morning to find new hardware installed ...

Except in this particular case it's about waking up not with new 
hardware but in a new network environment... such as might happen if it 
was installed on a laptop.

>  Sorry, but one of the reasons I'm moving AWAY from Windows is Microsoft's 
> long habit of loading up systems with unneeded network protocols and services 
> without asking or warning. And they're slowly reforming that habit!

I wonder if these things get installed on a "minimal install"?

Certainly the packages can be unselected if you do a custom install and 
"select individual packages". So it's a case of picking sensible 
defaults, making the best compromise between the two cases:

1. picking a minimal set of packages and having to add extras manually 
post-installation (or during installation), and

2. picking a big set of packages and having to remove some manually 
post-installation (or during installation), bearing in mind that many 
people won't know what some packages do and whether it's safe to remove 
them or not.

Ideally the compromise would result in the minimum number of manual 
additions/removals over the entire user base...

Paul.