Return to BSD News archive
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!caen!usenet.coe.montana.edu!bsd.coe.montana.edu!nate From: nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu (Nate Williams) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc Subject: Re: SUMMARY: NetBSD questions Date: 20 Jul 1993 18:31:04 GMT Organization: Montana State University Lines: 96 Message-ID: <22hdl8$q85@pdq.coe.montana.edu> References: <CAGF86.3qn@rex.uokhsc.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: bsd.coe.montana.edu In article <CAGF86.3qn@rex.uokhsc.edu> benjamin-goldsteen@uokhsc.edu writes: >My understanding of the various PC-BSD's available are: > >386BSD 0.1 - Basic starting point of 386BSD. Not very robust Yes. >386BSD 0.1 + patchkit (currently at 0.2.4) - 386BSD, but it works It works very well, and is generally more stable than NetBSD-0.8, but is it being replaced by the 0.1.5 version, since all of the patchkit co-ordinators are involved in the 0.1.5 version. >386BSD 0.1.5 - Stable version of patched 386BSD Unreleased, but based on the 0.2.4 patchkit >386BSD 0.2 - "The greatest BSD ever made - promised by WJ" *grin* >NetBSD 0.8 - offshoot of 386BSD 0.1 + 0.1.5 patchkit designed to be more > reliable and not require getting 386BSD 0.1 and applying a patch kit > and recompiling. NetBSD is based on 386BSD 0.1 + 0.2.3 patchkit, and has some additional features as well. Check out the README on agate.berkeley.edu for the Changes. It is also not binary compatible with 386BSD (but it can run 386BSD binaries) >NetBSD current - NetBSD that is not binary compatible with 386BSD This is a much improved and totally re-vamped version of NetBSD, and it contains alot of very good fixes. However, NetBSD current is not guaranteed to be stable at times (and is at times very unstable), but is a very good product. The next release of NetBSD should be very good. >If you are interested in kernel hacking, NetBSD is the right one. Not necessarily, but if you are interested in multi-platform support, NetBSD is definitely the way to go. >386BSD 0.1.5 trys to be more stable as it will be distributed on >CD-ROM. An alpha release should be put up for ftp this week on >freefall.cdrom.com. :-) Speaking as a 0.1.5 (aka FreeBSD) person, this means that we are less likely to change things (this could be construed as leaving buggy code in) unless we are more sure of the stability of the changes, at least in this release. > >Anybody want to clarify any of that? BTW, do we really need this many >versions? We seem to need a reliable base version; an extended, >reliable, friendly version based on the reliable base version; and a >research version -- based loosely on the reliable version. It seems to me that's what we have. 1) 0.2 - Definately a very much research oriented version, since it contains a ton of new code/features, but no-one but the Jolitz have seen it. (vaporware) 2) NetBSD - an extended, reliable, friendly version that is can be easily be used for research, and for porting to additional architectures. But the best reason is that it's available, and not vaporware. 3) Interim - Reliable version, based on work in NetBSD and the patchkit + additional work and such. (vaporware for a little bit longer) I don't consider 386BSD 0.1 a version anymore, since it is unstable and fairly unusable. If you want something to run *today*, I would get NetBSD. If you are already running 386BSD, get the patchkit if you don't want to re-install. If you want to wait a bit, get either FreeBSD or the next NetBSD release. > One thing I would like to see are more binary too releases -- some >of the bugs fixed in the patchkits are prevent me from aquiring them (I >was never able to download 386BSD 0.1 because the serial driver in the >original did not work -- I never got around to feeding my computer >floppies for an afternoon). The FreeBSD group will provide a binary release, which contains all of the patchkit + more fixes. Nate -- nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu | In the middle of it ........ again. nate@cs.montana.edu | Running/supporting one of many freely available work #: (406) 994-4836 | Operating Systems for [34]86 machines. home #: (406) 586-0579 | (based on Net/2, name changes all the time :-)