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> I spent a long time trying to understand why DJB's software wasn't considered the gold standard and installed by default on all Linuxes and BSDs.

His license had a "no modifications" clause, for one thing.

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That and the fact they decidedly don't work "the UNIX way".

By that description, no popular software was working 'the UNIX way' in the '90s and '00s. I avoiding dealing with the abominations of Sendmail and Named for that reason.

I should have also stated that it's not necessarily a bad thing, it just makes certain things (e.g. creating packages) more cumbersome/involved.

Simple processes that perform a well-defined job. Programs which can be easily modified by people other than the developer. Composable pieces. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy.

What is the unix way from your perspective?

Perhaps it was "too unix". Too simple processes performing too narrowly specified jobs. It made the whole apparatus difficult to put into operation because of all the moving parts. It'd be like a precision watch that keeps great time, but if somebody just handed you a box of 300 springs and gears, you'd probably prefer a quartz crystal.

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