This is along the lines of my simplicity rant the other day. What I want is things set up ready to go.
I do this myself, for most of the projects I get involved in. For a project, I build up a software stack that contains all the components necessary, with an install script that does the work - and not only installs the stack but can also put project-specific customizations in place, and install data if required. It's largely self-documenting as well, as the install script contains all the tweaks and kludges I needed to get the thing to work.
The full stack actually has quite a bundle of components. The primary ones are:
- Apache httpd
- Apache tomcat
- Tomcat Connectors
- OpenSSL
- mod_ssl
- MM
- PHP
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- Apache ant
- Apache Axis
- Apache XML-RPC
- SOAP::Lite
I still use Apache 1.3.X, due to problems I've had with 2.0.X and 2.2.0 not working right. Of course, not all projects require the full set.
As an example, I've used this software stack to enable easy deployment of DSpace, in addition to basic web servers and complex soap application servers.
Which raises the valid question - why build the stack myself?
There are several reasons. Being self-contained is a pretty good reason, all on its own - having everything in a single bundle with all dependencies means you don't have to worry about how to integrate it with some other component that may or may not be installed, may or may not be the right version, and may or may not be configured compatibly. It just works. You make yourself independent of other suppliers, who may change things underneath you without your knowledge. And it fully documents and supplies your requirements so that someone else can come along later and not only understand what you did but has all the bits already at hand to reproduce it.
What I would like to see is more lightweight software stacks developed - in a modular fashion so that I can just click a link and get a single file that gives me a well-defined area of functionality. Big frameworks are all very well, but there's an awful lot of complexity due to the generality that comes with a full framework, and that gets in the way of actually doing work.
This also means that I don't really want - at all - bits of the stack bundled with the operating system. These are just a pain and get in the way. I've nothing against OS suppliers having the full software stack available, but please compartmentalize it so I can safely ignore it.
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