Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 20:06:07 +0100 (CET) From: "Cordula's Web" <cpghost@cordula.ws> To: dincht@securenym.net Cc: stephane@laperouse.internatif.org Subject: Re: Why userland , basesystem and Kernel are together?! Message-ID: <200312111906.hBBJ67o7073976@fw.farid-hajji.net> In-Reply-To: <200312111839.hBBIdAH06137@anon.securenym.net> (dincht@securenym.net) References: <012701c3bde4$4acf2b30$019c9752@xp> <20031209013027.GC1099@zi025.glhnet.mhn.de> <03da01c3be90$032636f0$019c9752@xp> <20031210011904.GB2145@zi025.glhnet.mhn.de> <200312111839.hBBIdAH06137@anon.securenym.net>
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> > There are several operating systems, Debian, RedHat, > > Mandrake, which only have in common to use the Linux kernel. > > This is incorrect. All relevant Linux distributions are not only based > on the same kernel, but almost almost all of the same userland software > as well. (Specifically, GNU software, much of which is a core part of > FreeBSD as well.) The main areas where they differ are the configuration > details (what files are where, how to configure services such as init > scripts and networking, etc) and package management. There are of course > other differences, but these two are the biggies. All Linux distributions use glibc; while BSDs use their own version of libc. But these are only technicalities. More important is that the BSDs use a central CVS repository for the whole OS (minus third party packages), whereas in the Linux world, the "vendors" maintain separate (mostly with source, but sometimes binary-only as well) collections of separately maintained software. If the developers of Linux' base utilities, glibc, kernel etc... submitted all their source code to a "Linux CVS" repo, and all distributions were built on top of that, they would have adopted an important part (though not everything) of BSDs philosophy [putting the different licensing schemes aside for a moment]. However, this is unlikely to happen any time soon (if at all), mostly for political reasons: the FSF, Linus, and a lot of other developers would have to agree to share a single repository, and this is particulary difficult to achieve. Anyway, both development models are quite viable, and it is amazing to see how both "camps" are making excellent progress. -- Cordula's Web. http://www.cordula.ws/
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