Date: Thu, 05 Apr 2001 14:40:46 +0800 From: John Summerfield <summer@os2.ami.com.au> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Should I switch? [was Re: A novel idea....] Message-ID: <200104050636.f356atI07350@dugite.os2.ami.com.au> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Wed, 04 Apr 2001 20:44:39 EST." <20010404204439.A17787@cec.wustl.edu>
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> = > 7. FreeBSD is developed very rapidly. Especially if you subscribe to > mailing lists, you can see bugs fixed almost as soon as they are > mentioned. New features are added more conservatively, however. New > stuff is tried out in -CURRENT, where the heavy-duty FreeBSD hackers > make it stable, then merge it into -STABLE. The reason Linux became mor= e > popular than FreeBSD is, as I've read: Linux development is > helter-skelter--anybody can make changes to the system and redistribute= > them with ease. As a consequence, a wide range of people worked to > develop the components on your Debian system. This distribution and > encouragement led to confusion, but also popularity. FreeBSD, on the > other hand, is maintained by a fixed group of committers. While you can= > still modify your system, it is more difficult to get random changes > into the main code tree. The result is a more structured and sane > development process, with an emphasis on stability rather than untested= > additions. While it's true anyone can make changes to Linux and redistribute them wi= th ease, I = don't see how it's a point of difference. What prevents me from taking a = bit of BSD, = changing it and distributing it how I will? Actually getting a change into a distribution of Linux requires convincin= g a = Responsible Person that it's a good idea, and that Responsible Person is = going to = take care either because his job may be on the line if he gets it wrong, = or it's his = pet part of the overall Scheme of Things and he really truly cares about = it. In that regard, I don't see that FreeBSD is a lot different from a distri= bution. Remember too that a good deal of the software on BSD is the same as is on= linux. -- = Cheers John Summerfield http://www2.ami.com.au/ for OS/2 & linux information. Configuration, networking, combined IBM ftpsites index. Microsoft's most solid OS: http://www.geocities.com/rcwoolley/ Note: mail delivered to me is deemed to be intended for me, for my dispos= ition. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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