From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue May 23 20:35:13 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from locutus.ghs.ssd.k12.wa.us (locutus.ghs.ssd.k12.wa.us [216.186.55.25]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2054037BBB4 for ; Tue, 23 May 2000 20:35:07 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from protozoa@locutus.ghs.ssd.k12.wa.us) Received: from localhost (protozoa@localhost) by locutus.ghs.ssd.k12.wa.us (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id UAA76556; Tue, 23 May 2000 20:34:56 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from protozoa@locutus.ghs.ssd.k12.wa.us) Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 20:34:50 -0700 (PDT) From: Dan Feldman To: Mohit Aron Cc: Glenn Johnson , freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD kernel as a replacement for Linux kernel In-Reply-To: <200005240322.WAA09260@noel.cs.rice.edu> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The thing is, using Linux applications on Linux isn't all that easy. There definately needs to be a better packaging system, but that won't happen anytime soon. On the other hand, commercial apps usually have very precise instructions as to what one should do. If you're a little creative you can generally break the rules to get these to run on FreeBSD. For instance, I installed StarOffice by timing the length of the binary first-stage installer (which is broken on my FreeBSD system), running it again and stopping it just before it finishes, and then finding the newly-extracted second-stage installer in the /tmp directory. (I'm pretty sure the installer works better on newer versions of FreeBSD). I think the answer is more to convince application vendors to go the extra inch and write a back-up install script that's a little more portable than their fancy GUI things, rather than asking the kernel hackers to go the extra mile to ensure every Linux program works perfectly. -- Dan Feldman Hacker, webmaster and computer connoisseur Out of sight, out of mind, out of hand. Visit http://messenger.ghs.ssd.k12.wa.us/, okay? On Tue, 23 May 2000, Mohit Aron wrote: > > > > > I think you need to keep in mind that FreeBSD is more than just the > > kernel, in contrast to Linux. The tight integration and control of all > > of the userspace tools makes system management much easier IMHO with > > FreeBSD than any Linux distribution I have used. This is especially true > > when you have a fleet of machines to keep up to date. > > > > I think you are right though that visibility need to be increased to > > attract commercial developers but I think the only way to do that is to > > steadily grow the user base. > > > > > Well, I'm not about to give up FreeBSD running on my desktop, but at times > it is frustrating to not being able to use so much stuff out there that's > meant to work for Linux but doesn't work for FreeBSD for one small reason > or another. I think the user base can only grow if it is as easy to > use third-party applications on FreeBSD as on Linux. > > > > - Mohit > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.1 (FreeBSD) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE5K03fm5zE2gDgwPgRAvn5AJ4g0lYYnEAHe0KvzK4zxcZ8Kn1bywCfZPIp ICXJNU6U/Blg049xrED09k8= =13gl -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message