Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 11:12:10 -0800 From: David Johnson <djohnson@acuson.com> To: Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com> Cc: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD & GNU Message-ID: <3ABF948A.26B750B1@acuson.com> References: <001301c0b437$d60f45e0$1401a8c0@tedm.placo.com>
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Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > > This is rather inaccurate! > > For starters, there were more than 3 projects. For example, Minix, that > was a Unix-line operating system. I didn't include Minix for two reason: 1) is wasn't open source or free; 2) it was meant to be a "teaching" OS rather than a production OS. I also didn't include Xinu for the same reasons. > ...The overall BSD-ported-from-the-mainframe project was never to > build from scratch. It has always been to re-use as much as possible the > original free code that was pretty much given to AT&T for free, and AT&T > then went out and sold. This isn't that different from GNU or Linux (the distributions). GNU always preferred to use existing code rather than write from scratch. Perhaps I would have been a bit more accurate by saying "386BSD" instead of just "BSD". I meant the nearest common ancestor of FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and BSD/OS. > This effect also works against the other projects like HURD (GNU's effort) > The reason is that if Stallman goes out and implements some cool, gotta-have > feature in Hurd, the second that people decide that it's better than what's > already in FreeBSD or Linux, they will then incorporate that feature into > those OS's. I think that, in part, this is one reason that RMS wants everyone to refer to Linux at GNU/Linux, LiGnuX, or whatever the term du jour is. If he gets everyone thinking that Linux is really GNU, then it's that much easier to get people using HURD and the real GNU OS. You are correct. Why use an unstable HURD when linux is working right now? In a broader sense, why use The GNU System when everything I want from GNU is already available in BSD and Linux? But right now it seems that they only people interested in HURD is the "monolithic kernels are evil" crowd (and to a lesser extent, the "Linus doesn't believe as we do" crowd). David To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message
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