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Autoconf is certainly extremely functional but it is not Good.

The irony in all of this of course is that autoconf was created to solve the portability issues between platforms that came from the Cathedral model.

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No, autoconf happened because UNIX abandonned the cathedral model and went bazaar.

More accurately, it went multi-cathedral: major vendors were building temples to their self-perceived importance and unless you were a major customer they weren't interested in borrowing a better idea from someone else.

The bazaar at least opened up the option for most users to have some influence over the process.

Indeed, the first "Free" UNIX was released in the early 90's. The UNIX fragmentation of the 80's doesn't really describe the Bazaar from C&B to me either.

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