Date: 13 Feb 1999 01:48:08 +0100 From: naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de (Christian Weisgerber) To: freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Linus on IRC Message-ID: <7a2i48$md2$1@mips.rhein-neckar.de> References: <79t6uv$1kq$1@mips.rhein-neckar.de> <XFMail.990211072508.asmodai@wxs.nl>
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Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai <asmodai@wxs.nl> wrote:
> Mayhaps, but most Linux users and Linux coders view only their OS as the
> One True Way, and they don't see how hopelessly broken/hacked at some
> places it realy is.
Substitute any arbitrary operating system in place of "Linux" above and
the statement still rings true.
> Also, there's so much about the development process of some Linux
> programming efforts that causes alot of patching before it's even
> suitable for cross platform development
Nothing new or remarkable there. People usually develop on their
preferred platform and dependencies and assumptions creep in. When I
started with Unix, which incidentally wasn't that long ago, most free
software on the net simply assumed you were running a BSD-ish system.
(Which Linux 0.99 with GNU userland fulfilled quite nicely.) Getting
things to run on a System-V-system, even a supposedly unifying-all-SVR4
Solaris 2.1, took extra work.
> > To Linux people, BSD is mostly a non-issue.
> They wouldn't know *BSD if it bit them in the butt.
I don't know. It *doesn't* bite them in the butt.
We have an embryonic Unix user's group (UUG-RN) here. If it hadn't been
for my lobbying, it would have been christened a Linux user's group. In
fact, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stem the tide. As far as I
can tell out of the one or two dozen people, I'm the only one who
regularly runs anything other than Linux.
Like it or not, Linux is the Unix market leader. And it shapes people's
expectations. At one UUG-RN meeting I brandished the OpenBSD 2.4 CD-ROM.
One chap was curious enough to install it. "I was quite disappointed, it
doesn't even come with bash!" (Actually, it does come with a i386
*package* for bash.)
> Funniest thing happened the other day, someone asked me if FreeBSD was
> released under the GPL.
I hope you didn't scorn him but rather explained a few things. A great
many people equate Open Source with the GPL. They don't know any better,
they've never been told.
> Most of 'em have no sense of the history if 'nix anyways...
Sure. Linux lures more people into the Unix world than anything else
before. At the rate of growth it has enjoyed for the last couple of
years, most of its user base are bleeding newbies at any point in time.
It's a natural development. And those that don't have a university
background are unlikely to have had any prior Unix exposure or any
awareness that Linux even *is* a Unix.
Linux isn't the enemy. Linux isn't technically bad. Modern Linux
distributions make for perfectly fine Unices. Most of the Linux bashing
I observe from BSD people has no better basis than a splitting of the
world into "us" and "them", and rising hate at the realization that
"they" enjoy greater popularity.
I suggest less fanaticism and more rationality. And folks, please let's
drop the unwarranted ad hominem attacks. Lately, with the rising anti-
Microsoft sentiments, people paint Bill Gates as some kind of devil.
This is absurd. Mr. Gates is simply a very successful business man.
Whether due to great ability or sheer luck I can't tell and I don't
particularly care about. Now similar mud slinging appears in the BSD
community directed against Linus Torvalds.
--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@mips.rhein-neckar.de
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