From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 30 14:50:08 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0FC3216A400 for ; Thu, 30 Mar 2006 14:50:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (clunix.cl.msu.edu [35.9.2.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9ED4D43D62 for ; Thu, 30 Mar 2006 14:50:07 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.13.6+Sun/8.12.2) with ESMTP id k2UEo5RH005821; Thu, 30 Mar 2006 09:50:05 -0500 (EST) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.13.6+Sun/8.12.2/Submit) id k2UEo5SQ005820; Thu, 30 Mar 2006 09:50:05 -0500 (EST) From: Jerry McAllister Message-Id: <200603301450.k2UEo5SQ005820@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: vaaf@broadpark.no (Vaaf) Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 09:50:05 -0500 (EST) In-Reply-To: <7.0.1.0.2.20060330155431.020c3ca8@broadpark.no> X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL7] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Vladimir Tsvetkov , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Why are so many people using 4.x? 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: Thu, 30 Mar 2006 14:50:08 -0000 > > > Hello Vladimir! > > > >30 years of development and continual introduction of new features > >build on top of existing ones is considered a very good design. And > >FreeBSD is still extensible and growing, despite of its age. > > Yes, the fact that it's still ongoing is amazing. > > If it has managed to keep going for 30 years, it will surely keep > on going for another 30 years. > > What I meant was, the fundamentals for FreeBSD was set 30 years > ago. Isn't it time we change that? So what _fundamentals_ would you have be changed? > >And FreeBSD is not a skyscraper neigther literally, nor metaphorically > >- it's more like a spaceship - a very robust one - gives you the means > >and tools to save your life in deep space when a threat to your life > >appears and there is noone around. > > I think you're watching too much scifi. > > >Before even starting talking about design, we should give proper > >definition for this concept. > >What is good design? > > It's pretty well defined at http://www.designcouncil.org.uk > > >How do we measure one design against an alternative one? > > You ask an experienced designer, preferably an architect. > That's the only way, otherwise you'll just be trying to bite your own tail. > > >The widespread notion of good desing is related to the ability to > >maintain, extent and comprehend easily some complex system. > > No. Good design is transforming something complex into something easy. > > FreeBSD is complex. FreeBSD is easy - very much so in comparison with some other so-called 'systems' available for comparison. ////jerry > > >30 years... You do the math! > > ? > > >I'm not sure you're ready to present a new and revolutionary design > >(you should start a new threat on that). It's more like you're in > >search of volunteers to your FreeBSD Critisism Project. > > I should be ready in a few weeks. > > If you're interested I'd be glad to show it to you! > > >Revolutionary design means starting from scratch - this would be a > >huge, tremendous investment of time and efforts(choose a platform, a > >language, write a compiler for it, start building a kernel, write > >completely new device drivers - Microsoft have its Singularity > >Research Project - an operating system written entirely in C#, but > >they don't share the tools - the C# compiler and linker they use to > >build that system, neighter the code - you can get just a couple of > >PowerPoint presentions, an interview, and a short 50 page long paper, > >about the features that this system will introduce - on the other hand > >you can get all of the FreeBSD source code, tones and tones of > >documentation, and hundreds of ready to help you people - FOR FREE). > > Revolutionary design, according to Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific > Revolutions, one of the most popular science models of our time, > characterizes science (where the same applies to design) as going from > normal science to science in crisis and from science in crisis to scientific > revolution. To me there's a crisis now because I personally believe things > are moving in the wrong direction. Again, this is just personal. > > >And there's no guarantee that this new design would last even 5 years. > > You're absolutely right! > > >At some point in time this will probably happen, but it won't be > >FreeBSD. FreeBSD is not a vendor - it's an existing and evolving > >operating system and a commited community of FreeBSD users. The > >emphasis is on evolving. > >If we want to stick to FreeBSD, the new design should be evolutionary > >one, which is pretty different in concept - we would start from a > >familiar code base and would slowly integrate changes (just like the > >DragonFly project) into this base, thus creating a new BSD branch of > >development. > > > >Best Regards, > >Vladimir Tsvetkov > > Thank you again for your useful response! > > All the best, > Vaaf > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >