Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 02:49:29 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Walter <fbsd@saveouraquifer.org> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: minder Message-ID: <20141016024929.80d7e254.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <543F12EF.8020207@saveouraquifer.org> References: <543ED1D6.3000500@saveouraquifer.org> <543ED8C1.9090508@gmail.com> <543EF466.3070908@saveouraquifer.org> <543F0C42.1060401@gmail.com> <543F12EF.8020207@saveouraquifer.org>
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On Wed, 15 Oct 2014 20:35:59 -0400, Walter wrote: > I'll try to be clearer then: I know the BSD's are not Linux distributions. > I know FreeBSD is it's own OS. But I also know FreeBSD has a Linux > compatibility layer, where it can run Linux programs. Maybe not all > of them, but at least some. The future will tell if this tendency will be kept or lost. Especially with Linux being a _different_ OS from FreeBSD, incompatibilities arise. Most software is being developed for Linux first, and then ported to FreeBSD. This is not always simple or even possible. Just see the HAL situation and the upcoming problems with deep integration of Linux cgroups and systemd support in desktop environments and single programs. > Desktop Operating System Market Share: > [...] > Linux has 1.64% market share, but no flavor of BSD makes the list. > I don't think saying Linux is more popular should be a major point of > contention. FreeBSD does not have a market share, because it does not operate on a market, making money from unit sales. Showing a comparison of "usage share" would be more accurate, but due to the FreeBSD licensing (often criticized as a "rape me license") the required information cannot be obtained. There's no way to tell in how many appliances, routers, NAS, server products or embedded systems a BSD is running because the manufacturer doesn't have to advertise the fact that he took a BSD as a foundation to create a product to make money. And according to the BSD license, that's fully legal. Linux probably isn't much different. It's also being used in similar ways (applicances, software compilations, media devices, firewalls etc.). This does probably not count to the "desktop OS" market, but it's a use of Linux anyway. And if you obtain the "market share" values by examining web browser User-Agent strings, well... ;-) > So, my thinking is that if a family of an application runs on Windows, > Mac, and Linux, it would be popular enough not to die out, and > likely to get all the bugs ironed out. You can't make a statement like "all the bugs" where "all" is an unknown (but probably finite) number. :-) > AND, if it runs on Linux, FreeBSD > will likely run it too; that's what I meant by my poorly written words > "Linux (BSD)." This is probably true, but depends on the application in question. You could also say: "If it runs on 'Windows', it will likely run with wine on FreeBSD." Stating "runs on 'Windows' (BSD)" might still lead to confusion. :-) Basically, you're fully right, and it's common to assume that programs running on Linux will run on FreeBSD (through the Linux ABI) too, if there isn't a native port for that program. But you actually need to _verify_ this for every single case. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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