*BSD News Article 11897


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From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: 386BSD Posix Compliance
Message-ID: <C2z38u.3BA@panix.com>
Date: 24 Feb 93 21:48:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: panix.C2z38u.3BA
References: <1me016$4j8@agate.berkeley.edu>
Organization: Panix Public Access Internet & Unix, NYC
Lines: 31

In article <1me016$4j8@agate.berkeley.edu> wjolitz@soda.berkeley.edu (William F. Jolitz) writes:
>Just to reassure people, 386BSD will remain POSIX compliant.
>Extensions to the system are "experimental" and will be justified
>over time. 
>
>However, 386BSD development remains focussed on novel research and
>development issues. Compatibility with commercial systems
>is not a primary goal. Commercial companies which wish to
>slip-stream 386BSD development work instead of competing 
>in the commercial market and spending their own dollars


With all due respect, I think you're misunderstanding the issue!

There are a lot of us who _DON 'T_ have the money or need for a commercial
system (thus being 386BSD's target audience as I understand it) who would
like to be able to slip-stream the work done by others who _do_ use the
commercial systems like BSDI and Mach386 with which 386BSD is currently
compatible.  Changing interfaces in a way incompatible with those
commercial systems (and other noncommercial ones, like 4.4 and HURD)
hurts _us_, part of your user base, as much as it might hurt the
commercial vendors.  I know you work very hard and am sure you put a lot
of thought into it before deciding to do this, but I really do wish you'd
reconsider.


-- 
Thor Lancelot Simon	 tls@panix.COM

"Better be careful there.  John might decide to start taking legal action
against people who refuse to buy stuff from him."  --Kevin McBride