Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.os.linux.misc:56 comp.os.386bsd.misc:680
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!constellation!osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!isolar!isolar!not-for-mail
From: earle@isolar.Tujunga.CA.US (Greg Earle)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: Why would I want LINUX?
Followup-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.misc
Date: 15 Aug 1993 13:44:25 -0700
Organization: Personal Usenet site, Tujunga, CA USA
Lines: 48
Message-ID: <24m779$b0h@isolar.Tujunga.CA.US>
References: <55270001@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM> <24gnu4$skm@nz12.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>
NNTP-Posting-Host: isolar.tujunga.ca.us
In article <24gnu4$skm@nz12.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>,
Olaf Titz <s_titz@ira.uka.de> wrote:
[ Someone else who uses DOS asks why one would want Linux]
>A couple of good reasons:
>...
>7. I am neither able nor willing to spend big bucks on software when I
>can get good material for less. :-) Especially not since Linux is
>actually the best OS you can get for the 386 class of hardware, if you
>consider things like speed, memory usage, availability of software,
>even support (from friendly net.people etc.)
Uh, do you have empirical proof of this? (-:
On the other hand, perhaps you have a point. Back in the early days of Linux
and 386BSD, it seemed (to an outsider; I use a Sun clone and SunOS all the
time) like Linux was an interesting research project (no offense intended to
Linus; when a single person writes a whole O/S kernel, one can't help but have
an initial impression of it being an "interesting research project" (-: - of
course, it has mushroomed considerably since then). And it seemed like 386BSD
was the spirit of BSD & Net-2 reincarnated, and therefore more likely (just due
to that fact alone, with the inherent right-off-the-bat software compatibility
issues that this promised) to become more largely adopted. The fact that it
had the Net-2 networking code and Linux' early support for networking and thus
X were considered suspect no doubt fueled this perception.
Now it seems like (emphasis on "seems like") 386BSD and NetBSD have dissolved
in a hail of acrimony, including bickering with the Jolitz's, a (hostile?)
takeover of the software that smacks of "Hey! That was a great idea! Glad I
thought of it!" Meanwhile, there's the fact that there are more than 7 times
the number of postings to the Linux groups than to the 386BSD/NetBSD groups:
isolar:2:40 % ls -R1 /var/spool/news/comp/os/386bsd | egrep '^[1-9]' | wc -l
226
isolar:2:41 % ls -R1 /var/spool/news/comp/os/linux | egrep '^[1-9]' | wc -l
1593
So, at least, it would appear that Linux has won the "popularity contest".
Whether it is the "best OS you can get for the 386 class of hardware" is still
an IMHO statement, I would think. An interesting turn of events, nonetheless.
Again, these are just the observations of an interested bystander/outsider.
Further comments/observations from an insider's perspective welcomed ...
--
- Greg Earle
Phone: (818) 353-8695 FAX: (818) 353-1877 [Out of order now]
Internet: earle@isolar.Tujunga.CA.US
UUCP: isolar!earle@elroy.JPL.NASA.GOV a.k.a. ...!elroy!isolar!earle