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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!ra!cs.umd.edu!nocusuhs!nmrdc1!dsc3pzp From: dsc3pzp@nmrdc1.nmrdc.nnmc.navy.mil (Philip Perucci) Subject: Re: Which is better ? Message-ID: <C7MsvI.4oq@nmrdc1.nmrdc.nnmc.navy.mil> Organization: Naval Medical Research & Development Command References: <1993May25.095207.25469@uxmail.ust.hk> <C7LC9D.DG6@nmrdc1.nmrdc.nnmc.navy.mil> <1993May25.212403.14269@cm.cf.ac.uk> Date: Wed, 26 May 1993 11:21:17 GMT Lines: 34 In article <1993May25.212403.14269@cm.cf.ac.uk> paul@isl.cf.ac.uk (Paul) writes: >However, comp.os.386bsd.questions should be exactly that sort of >forum. If we're not going to spend a little time answering newbie >questions and yes I know we're all busy doing the work that keeps >us alive, then 386bsd is never going to gain ground amongst the >broader user base. One of the things that does worry me is the total >lack of traffic in the 386bsd groups, while I know that there are >people out there working on things it seems that there isn't much >of a base actually using the stuff we develop. > As a current Linux user, but NetBSD "wanna-run" I feel that the reason the user base for NetBSD/386BSD is not any larger is the lack of shared libraries which results in greatly increased hard disk requirements as compared with Linux. Also, there is no "idiot-proof" installation of XFree86 with NetBSD as with Linux's SLS distribution, though this is a lesser issue. Most PCs are too small to run NetBSD. With my 240Mb Quantum, I am just now able to run NetBSD (thank God!). Yes, I know - the high disk requirements are not inconsistant with the 386BSD role as a "research tool". Personally, I am happy to WAIT until shared libraries are done "right", rather than the "just-do-it" philosophy found elsewhere. However, until the shared libraries come out, "if you want to play, you will have to pay (hard disk)". I suspect that the more sophisticated developers are happy NOT to have a large "MS-DOS convert" number of users. Being only a marginal C programmer myself, however, I can only guess... -- ============================================================================== phil perucci | "Any opinions expressed are my views, dsc3pzp@nmrdc1.nmrdc.nnmc.navy.mil | not the position of any organization" ==============================================================================