*BSD News Article 12022


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From: hlu@eecs.wsu.edu (H.J. Lu)
Subject: Re: BSD or Linux?
Message-ID: <1993Feb28.201507.25646@serval.net.wsu.edu>
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References: <11135@tivoli.UUCP> <1993Feb26.192438.9988@coe.montana.edu> <1moc6oINN9dr@ftp.UU.NET> <1993Feb28.004846.12072@coe.montana.edu>
Date: Sun, 28 Feb 93 20:15:07 GMT
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In article <1993Feb28.004846.12072@coe.montana.edu>, nate@cs.montana.edu (Nate Williams) writes:


|> The difference is that Linux has radical changes between versions, and the
|> users are the beta testers.  Bill has made lots of changes, and instead
|> of letting us test them, he waits until they are more stable, and then 
|> releases them.  (There are good and bad points for user level testing of
|> large changes)
|> 

As you may know, not all PC hardwares are the same. The bootable roodisks
I made for Linux work fine on the machines I have. But they may lock up on
someone else's machine. Unless you test your changes on all kinds of PCs before
you release them to users, which is almost impossible, you will have someone
saying to you those changes don't work on his/her machine.

|> >
|> >Since Linux' networking and filesystems are still problematical to me (the
|> >default filesystem is still the original MINIX filesystem, I believe, which
|> >is no fun), I will be going to 386bsd, but I expect that Linux will be the
|> >stabler and more useful OS eventually.
|> >
|> 

If you are looking for a stable TCP/IP environment, I think 386bsd is
a better choice.

|> I disagree.
|> 
|> However, this arguement is similar to the AMIGA vs. MAC vs. PeeCee 
|> wars.  
|> 
|> 386BSD works for me.  It has an interface that I'm accustomed to.  SysV

Linux is not SYSV. POSIX.1 is closer to SYSV than BSD. It also uses some BSD
ideas.  We have tried very hard to provide an API compatible with both POSIX
and BSD. Since Linux is POSIX.1 compliant, some BSD functions are not
present. For most of codes, you can compile them as BSD under Linux, execpt
for some sigvec and tty stuff.

BTW, I am pushing for phasing out minix fs.

|> is NOT my cup of tea.  I've tried it, and I don't like it.  It's a matter
|> of personal preference.
|> 
|> To each his own,
|> 
|> Nate

May I suggest install both of Linux and 386bsd? Linux can run with as little
as 20 MB partition.


H.J.