Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 16:05:27 -0700 From: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> To: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> Cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Netscape browser Message-ID: <4.2.0.32.19990322154730.00ab0df0@localhost> In-Reply-To: <36F6C4BA.127F7508@softweyr.com> References: <4.1.19990321150512.03f85d40@localhost> <4.2.0.32.19990322132103.03f66150@localhost>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
At 03:31 PM 3/22/99 -0700, Wes Peters wrote: >> (*) Yes, you know and I know that BeOS uses only the LILO loader and some > >No, it doesn't. I used a similar loader on x86 in the early days, called >BeLO, but that has been gone since R4. Perhaps you should know a *little >bit* about what you're talking about before spewing misinformation about, >Brett. As I understand it, the loader in R3 (and perhaps in R4 as well) is a derivative of LILO. >> Linux device drivers. But recently, Be has been touting this as a way > >Far more of their device drivers came from FreeBSD than Linux. Be cannot >distribute Linux drivers with the system, because most Linux drivers are >GPL'd. Actually, Wes, they could -- so long as the drivers are compiled as separate modules that are loaded at runtime. As I understand it, this is precisely what BeOS does. (They also statically linked some GPLed code in R3, but pulled it; see the citation below and also the message I just sent under a new subject.) >Other chunks of BSD functionality, primarily FreeBSD, are found >in BeOS as well -- the system date/time code for instance. I'm not the least bit surprised that they've used code from the BSDs as well! >I dare you to find any public utterance or writing by any official, or even >employee, of Be Inc. trying to claim any degree of compatibility with Linux, "Compatibility?" Actually, they do claim some compatibility with Linux (though that's not the issue I was addressing). They have published an ext2 file system driver that lets them mount Linux disk volumes. But that's not what I was talking about. What I was saying is that Be included Linux code -- and GPLed code -- in the package. Some of it was even statically linked into BeOS R3. They say so themselves, for the world to see, at http://www.be.com/aboutbe/benewsletter/volume_II/Issue18.html >or in any other way attempting to "leverage Linux's flash-in-the-pan >popularity." Be is definitely trying to do this, though it wouldn't state explicitly that this was its strategy, of course. See Gassee's essay, "A Crack In The Wall," at http://www.be.com/aboutbe/benewsletter/volume_III/Issue8.html. He's hoping that Linux will pave the way for the installation of alternative OSes such as BeOS. Alas, it may also kill Be's market, but that's another issue. --Brett To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4.2.0.32.19990322154730.00ab0df0>