From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jan 17 23:49:37 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B0E3F106566C for ; Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:49:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from atom@smasher.org) Received: from atom.smasher.org (atom.smasher.org [69.55.237.145]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 8B51D8FC13 for ; Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:49:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: (qmail 82301 invoked by uid 1000); 17 Jan 2012 21:02:56 -0000 X-POM: The Moon is Waning Crescent (33% of Full) Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:03:58 +1300 (NZDT) From: Atom Smasher To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <1326756727.23485.10.camel@Arawn> <4F14BAA7.9070707@freebsd.org> <20120117010239.GA29529@richh-imac.office.boxdice.com.au> OpenPGP: id=0xB88D52E4D9F57808; algo=1 (RSA); size=4096; url=http://atom.smasher.org/pgp.txt MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: Re: FreeBSD has serious problems with focus, longevity, and lifecycle X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:49:37 -0000 On Tue, 17 Jan 2012, Mark Felder wrote: >> linux is, in fact, an operating system. debian, red hat, ubuntu, >> gentoo, etc are distributions of that OS. > > It's not really worth getting into this argument, but I'll reiterate > that no, it's not an OS -- it's a kernel. Without the userland utilities > the distros provide it's not very usable. Linus and co don't maintain > the shell or the rc subsystem or anything like that. They only work on > the kernel and in-tree drivers. We need to be comparing FreeBSD to a > full blown distro. ================ if it makes you feel better, then pick a distribution of linux, and compare it's successes and/or failings to freeBSD. whether or not linux is an OS or "just a kernel" is irrelevant here, but at the same time an interesting distinction (and let's not debate it here, just acknowledge that it's been pointed out) since freeBSD is both a kernel and a collection of core utilities. in some ways freeBSD is like the linux kernel, in other ways it's more like a distribution of linux. would freeBSD benefit from breaking up those things into explicitly different projects? like linux & GNU? -- ...atom ________________________ http://atom.smasher.org/ 762A 3B98 A3C3 96C9 C6B7 582A B88D 52E4 D9F5 7808 ------------------------------------------------- "No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up." -- Lily Tomlin