You can restart the computer.. but.. you can also Restart Windows 95. I guess the IFDOWN and IFUP scripts in linux are not as perfect as restarting the OS, due to possible things that could be skipped such as bridging or other funny things that require an OS restart.

One could argue it would be wise for everyone to restart their computer after installing something from Ports too. Maybe.. maybe not. Depends. I should have the choice to restart the network, and if I really want to.. fine I can reboot to ensure everything is absolutely perfect. Yes, ifup and ifdown are just knobs.. but 'cp' and 'rm' are just knobs for programs I could have written myself too.

To be completely safe.. it would be best to reboot your computer each time you use the 'rm' and 'cp' commands! Why? Because if you move a file that effects the system.. then you should restart the system! We can take the argument pretty far and outrageous, yes.

And worse yet, the community thinks this is perfectly okay there's no ifup/ifdown. Even if it's twice as ridiculous, bsd has the netif restart... but it doesn't solve the problem.

I'm starting to think now.. maybe the idiots from Finland are just as bad as the idiots from California.. All operating systems suck, in their own way, and we are all idiots.. complaining about too many or too little features, with not always a fine balance. MS Windows is idiotic too.. yes I don't see any elegant solution.

They're all crap. It's the way smart people think.. we don't put up with crap, even though we use it every day and don't necessarily have an immediate replacement or alternative. It's all part of the refinement and perfection process.

Everything is crap. Don't use anything.