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Xref: sserve comp.unix.bsd:12558 comp.os.linux:54423 comp.os.386bsd.misc:881 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!think.com!grapevine.lcs.mit.edu!ai-lab!life.ai.mit.edu!mycroft From: mycroft@trinity.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Charles Hannum) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd,comp.os.linux,comp.os.386bsd.misc Subject: Re: BSD UNIX Date: 06 Sep 1993 05:28:40 GMT Organization: MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab Lines: 65 Message-ID: <MYCROFT.93Sep6012840@trinity.gnu.ai.mit.edu> References: <newmanCCL33A.GBo@netcom.com> <GOWEN.93Aug30234233@apex.cs.tufts.edu> <1993Aug31.185019.22189@sophia.smith.edu> <MUTS.93Sep2205147@compi.hobby.nl> <michaelv.747084422@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: trinity.gnu.ai.mit.edu In-reply-to: michaelv@iastate.edu's message of Fri, 3 Sep 1993 19:27:02 GMT In article <michaelv.747084422@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu> michaelv@iastate.edu (Michael L. VanLoon) writes: Actually, from what I can gather, the only one not coordinating is Bill Jolitz himself, [...] This is exactly how I see it, too. a) The most stable, bugfree, production quality release possible in a free unix, [...] I don't know whether that's possible, but we're trying to make it as stable and reliable as we can, within our knowledge of the PC lossage, er, architecture. b) As complete as possible compliance with 4.3BSD and Net/2, [...] There are several compatibility issues we[*] are concerned with: 1) Compatibility with previous versions of NetBSD. We do not want to gratuitously screw over users. The DB library changes in 0.9 were because the old library was broken and out-of-date. Had we stuck with that version, we would have had to duplicate much of the work done by the 4.4BSD people on it. This would be a waste of effort. 2) Compatibility with 4.4BSD and other versions of Unix on the 386. Ultimately, everyone benefits if they can run other people's executables. In particular, in the not-too-distant future we will be able to run vendors' executables, and thereby inherit commercial software support. We currently run 386BSD(/FreeBSD/NetBSD 0.8) and BSDI executables on the 386, modulo problems with differing DB libraries. 3) Compatibility with other ports of NetBSD running on similar hardware. I will be working to make all of the 68k ports binary compatible, and to make them all support the SunOS compatibility mode, and the HP/UX compatibility mode where possible (when the former is implemented and when I finish the latter). 4) Compatibility with POSIX, ANSI, and XPG3. No comment. [*] I'm sure there are people in the NetBSD group who disagree with some or even all of these. Buildable on as many architectures as possible [...] Perhaps not as many as possible, but at least as many as we care about. B-) Ports from people outside the `core' NetBSD group are also welcome; the Mac, Amiga, and DECstation ports are in this category (though the first two borrow heavily from the hp300 port), and most of the code in the hp300 and SPARC ports are from 4.4BSD contributors. [Re: Linux] Until recently, its networking was not at all complete. They have recently adopted Net/2, but it is still somewhat buggy. Apparently, Linux's `Net-2' is not `Berkeley Networking 2', but merely the second release of Linux's own networking code. It was the poor networking, buggy file systems, and general instability that encouraged me to change from Linux to 386BSD about 10 months ago. It has probably gotten better since then, but I have not had those problems with 386BSD or now with NetBSD.