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From: deraadt@fsa.ca (Theo de Raadt)
Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs NetBSD 0.9, wait? [was: Re: from 386bsd0.1 to FreeBSD or NetBSD 0.9]
In-Reply-To: hasty@netcom.com's message of Sun, 12 Sep 1993 06: 29:38 GMT
Message-ID: <DERAADT.93Sep12015652@newt.fsa.ca>
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Organization: little lizard city
References: <almCD66yI.6LH@netcom.com> <DERAADT.93Sep10232713@newt.fsa.ca>
<CD7rGD.2p3@taronga.com> <hastyCD8A1E.9AA@netcom.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1993 08:56:52 GMT
Lines: 63
In article <hastyCD8A1E.9AA@netcom.com> hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr) writes:
> 386bsd-0.1
> 386bsd-0.1 + random patches
> 386bsd-0.1 + patchkit
> FreeBSD + complete patched distribution + development
> NetBSD + complete distribution + development + incompatible binaries
> 386bsd-0.2 + the great unknown
(I'm not attacking you, Amancio, just adding details.)
NOTE: I'm not posting this to create a flame war, so if anyone is
about to reply to this: STOP. If you disagree, send me mail or skip
to the next article.
NOTE: The only mention of FreeBSD made by me in this article occurs
in this sentence.
1. NetBSD 0.9 has all the important patches from the "complete patched
distribution" (as you call it).
2. NetBSD 0.9 generates incompatible binaries by default, but it can also
link and execute old-style executables. The new executable format saves
4K per executable (nearly 1 Mbyte of diskspace saved in /usr/bin alone),
and causes *NULL to cause a SIGSEGV (clearly a win.)
> Look, I am not saying that NetBSD or FreeBSD are inferior or that
> [...]
I'm not saying anything of the kind either, no matter how much Nate
or Jordan twist my words around. Both of them could learn how to
properly attribute articles too.
Comparing things on the Net is really a rather dull idea -- it does not
work. But if you insist on comparing, please get the facts straight.
<tdr.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
details for the finicky:
1a. SIO is the only large patch that was left out. That's because it does
not stick to conventional kernel interfaces to do it's job. It intrudes
into the interrupt subsystem, plays freely with the ring buffer
implementation, saves tty characteristics across open/close invocations,
and perhaps a few other things I have forgotten. Hopefully this will be
resolved soon.
2a. A few old-style executables did things that clearly weren't right.
Let's not even talk about those.
Otherwise, all old-style executable modes should work except the Jolitz
"screwballmode". I think the only executables of this kind are on the
original 386BSD install disk... OMAGIC and NMAGIC should serve the
(limited) purpose of this whacked a.out format once they are implimented
in NetBSD... (ie. not yet)
To generate old style executables use "-Xlinker -Z" in your CFLAGS
variable. The capability to execute old-style executables is enabled by
the kernel option "COMPAT_NOMID", and all shipped kernels have this option
enabled.
By the way, NetBSD also runs BSDI executables.
--
This space not left unintentionally unblank. deraadt@fsa.ca