Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:26:14 -0400 From: "Charles M. Hannum" <mycroft@MIT.EDU> To: Johnny Billquist <bqt@softjar.se> Cc: miros-discuss@mirbsd.org, misc@openbsd.org, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org, netbsd-users@NetBSD.org Subject: Re: The future of NetBSD Message-ID: <20060831192614.GA10101@multics.mit.edu> In-Reply-To: <44F703C0.30604@softjar.se> References: <20060830232723.GU10101@multics.mit.edu> <98f5a8830608301731s2b0663e3g94b0bd32f8a06a78@mail.gmail.com> <c6d37fe0608310259k12fe629eve59e59042fcfdb4c@mail.gmail.com> <Pine.BSM.4.64L.0608311312190.8977@odem.66h.42h.de> <950621ad0608310654h78ae0023g346abd108815ae72@mail.gmail.com> <20060831110112.J82634@hub.org> <Pine.BSM.4.64L.0608311515290.8977@odem.66h.42h.de> <78a2305a0608310830l923f83pbd03b2c89d417505@mail.gmail.com> <44F703C0.30604@softjar.se>
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On Thu, Aug 31, 2006 at 05:44:00PM +0200, Johnny Billquist wrote: > Andy Ruhl wrote: > >On 8/31/06, Thorsten Glaser <tg@mirbsd.de> wrote: > > > >>BSD is about an operating system, not about a kernel. > > > >Bingo. Good point. This point is lost sometimes. > > > >I believe NetBSD has the proper philosophy in regards to the entire OS > >as well. I don't want apache built in, for instance. > > This is a silly definition (imho) which I first heard Stallman use, but > seems to be spreading. > Every book on operating systems that I own, or have read, defines an > operating system as the kernel. Different applications, including even > shells, are not the operating system. > > But that's just my opinion, of course. But most of all, I don't see the > relevance of bringing the discussion down to a hair-splitting of what an > operating system is. Actually, defining (poorly) the OS to include so much else has been a liability for NetBSD in many ways. It has massively slowed the adoption of new software versions (e.g. GCC), for one. It also contributed to the perception that a better package system and automatic updates were not a serious issue.
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