*BSD News Article 16446


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From: mark@roissy.umd.edu (Mark Sienkiewicz)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: 386BSD Release: Contributors Only Please...
Date: 24 May 1993 16:38:09 GMT
Organization: University of Maryland
Lines: 39
Message-ID: <1tqtlh$ifs@umd5.umd.edu>
References: <1tggls$oqi@agate.berkeley.edu>> <CGD.93May22022324@gaia.CS.Berkeley.EDU> <C7FKJw.CMJ@moxie.hou.tx.us>
NNTP-Posting-Host: roissy.umd.edu

In article <C7FKJw.CMJ@moxie.hou.tx.us> hackney@moxie.hou.tx.us (Greg Hackney) writes:
>"I'll take the best parts of your OS and put them in mine". "And I'll
>take the best parts of yours and put them in mine". Gee wouldn't it be
>great if they all came out identical?

In a word- No.  There is a reason they all exist.  

BSDI appears to be in it for the money.  They also are the only available
option for some applications.  If you have $25,000,000 riding on it, would
you use 386bsd or would you buy a commercial product with guarenteed support?
(btw.  I had to make this choice just last year.  Guess what I picked?)

386bsd is a "research system".  Mr. Jolitz (without whom we wouldn't have
the luxury of flaming about this) is very clear that he is interested in 
promoting advanced OS implementations.  This is an excellent goal, but
it isn't for everybody.

Netbsd is here _now_ and it's been fairly stable for me.  It's a fairly
complete system, even including goodies like rpcgen.  Sure, people are hacking
around in it too, but I don't have to upgrade it.

>Seriously, it sure makes it doubly difficult for us (Joe End-User) to keep
>current with the latest and the greatest. Now we must deal with
>multiple resources. 

You have to make a choice.  Of these various systems, which one best matches
up with your needs?  Then follow that one, but be aware of what the others
are doing.  (btw.  why is latest and greatest good?)

I've always wanted a BSD computer for my home, and I'm using Netbsd because 
I think it best advances that goal.  If 386bsd 0.2 looks good to me (when it
gets here-- right now, I know little about it but it's name),  I'll consider 
changing over.

>(VGER was a satellite that gleened all knowledge from the universe).

And came back to destroy the earth, right? :)  Sorry, I couldn't resist--but
it illustrates that there is a good side and bad side to everything.