From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jul 19 18:04:10 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E6E94106564A for ; Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:04:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tech@dracoquies.us) Received: from qmta06.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net (qmta06.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net [76.96.30.56]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CCAC88FC0A for ; Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:04:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: from omta10.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net ([76.96.30.28]) by qmta06.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net with comcast id 9u431h0010cQ2SLA6u46V7; Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:04:06 +0000 Received: from chon.dracoquies.us ([76.113.10.65]) by omta10.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net with comcast id 9u451h0141QBs3Q8Wu47e6; Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:04:07 +0000 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=[192.168.101.35]) by chon.dracoquies.us with esmtp (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1QjEeM-0004Kn-Gx for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:04:06 -0600 Message-ID: <4E25C70C.8000308@dracoquies.us> Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:03:56 -0600 From: Sam George User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-US; rv:1.9.2.18) Gecko/20110616 Thunderbird/3.1.11 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20110717071059.25971662@scorpio> In-Reply-To: <20110717071059.25971662@scorpio> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Lennart Poettering: BSD Isn't Relevant Anymore X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:04:10 -0000 On 7/17/2011 05:10, Jerry wrote: > While I usually consider Slashdot nothing more than a bunch of > juveniles ranting against Microsoft; however, I did find this rather > interesting post this morning. > > "Lennart Poettering: BSD Isn't Relevant Anymore" > > > > Interestingly enough, a great deal of it is true. It might be > interesting to know how others feel about it. Obviously, asking that > question on this forum is like playing against a stacked deck; however, > it still might prove interesting. Having come to BSD from Linux less than a month ago, I find it interesting that the very thing, which Mr. Pottering is encouraging in Linux development, is what has lead me to search for other options besides Linux. Of late Linux has been loosing the 'plays well with others award'. First they cut the .AppleDouble support from the appletalk drivers, then they refused to let the ReiserFS code into the kernel, and I suppose their lack of implementing ZFS is possibly same motivation (given that they _do_ have the man power to port the code). If they feel that they are an end-all and be-all and don't need to support "legacy" systems, obscure hardware, or other ways of doing things, well, I'll find another way. This thing is about Freedom, if they cut that from their development plan, then it's time to say farewell. Pottering seems to have forgotten, or perhaps he is too young to remember? Linux was a 'toy OS'. And if it's too big a burden to support 'toy OS'es then Pottering is no different from the people who worked at the big companies twenty years ago. Getting back to the message I'm replying to, I disagree with mr pottering's basis statements: "If Debian was my project I'd try to focus on making (or keeping) it _professionally relevant_" -- I'll translate this as: If it ain't business and making money, drop it. "...we want to make sure Linux enters the mainstream all across the board." -- This sounds like desktop systems to me, but there is much more to the world than the shrinking market share of the desktop. UNIX was born in the research world as a pet project to have fun -- written after hours. BSD continued that journey toward freedom recoding the parts of UNIX that had been stripped out by unscrupulous business dealings. Hopefully Linux won't turn out to be an evolutionary miss-step, but... If Kerningham and Richie were focused on staying 'professionally relevant' UNIX would never have /existed/, and as its decedents, neither would have BSD or Linux. Is BSD relevant? Looks like it's /essential/ given the context of the question. Live Free. Sam George