*BSD News Article 27423


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From: jkh@whisker.hubbard.ie (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development
Subject: Re: Could the BSD 4.4 Lite be a new beginning?
Date: 18 Feb 1994 06:40:49 GMT
Organization: Jordan Hubbard
Lines: 55
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <JKH.94Feb18064049@whisker.hubbard.ie>
References: <HSU.94Feb14043905@laphroaig.cs.hut.fi> <R60q1p-.dysonj@delphi.com>
	<MYCROFT.94Feb17180243@duality.gnu.ai.mit.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: whisker.hubbard.ie
In-reply-to: mycroft@duality.gnu.ai.mit.edu's message of 17 Feb 1994 23:02:43 GMT

In article <MYCROFT.94Feb17180243@duality.gnu.ai.mit.edu> mycroft@duality.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Charles Hannum) writes:

   Well, I guess today is a good day for advertising...

No, actually not.

Sigh..  I was sort of hoping we wouldn't get to this stage in this
discussion, which is why I veered away from active comparison in my
own follow-up to this topic.  Please, folks, there are three important
points that really have to be remembered here in this pointless
"feature by feature war" between NetBSD and FreeBSD:

	1. Nobody speaking for any feature, or lack thereof, in the
	other group's OS can be trusted as far as you can throw them.
	Personal agenda takes over from technical accuracy after the
	3rd or 4th word.

	2. It is ludicrous to even attempt a point-by-point comparison
	of the two systems since that comparison will be obsolete within
	a week.  The system changes _every single day_, and people from
	Iceland to Australia are constantly donating bits to it.  I don't
	even try, which is why it's just stupid to infer a lack of "hyberhoo
	widgets" in one OS just because one camp advertises them in 10 foot
	neon letters and the other simply puts them in and doesn't make a lot
	of fuss about it.  Yes FreeBSD has shared libs, yes we have SYSV
	IPC and shared memory, yes we have a /proc filesystem, ok ok - if
	you're really interested then go look, ok?  Why should I waste your
	time here?

	3. In making any overall comparison _For Your Own Purposes_ (since
	any other comparison is truly meaningless), you need to take into
	account the complete range of attributes:  "Does the system do what
	I want it to?" "Does it run on the hardware I have?" "Are all the
	optional packages I need easily available?" "Are the people nice and
	willing to answer my questions?"  You can have a brilliant system that
	falls short in one or more of these areas and turns out overall to be
	a less than positive experience.

Charles's trashing of the new VM system and the sound drivers (which
work just great for a LOT of folks!) was unwarranted and uncalled for.
Sure, members of both camps can sit here until they get haemorrhoids,
pointing out flaws in the others' code base and screaming, spittle
flying from their lips, "BUG!  Nyah nyah!  I see a bug!  LOTS of them!
That system is UNUSABLE!!" And meanwhile, the rest of the world will
go right on happily using that system and very glad indeed to be
getting their bits for free.

Can we all get back to improving our systems now?  Thank you!

P.S. FreeBSD doesn't have a colorized ls either - that's Linux.. :-)

				Jordan
--
Jordan K. Hubbard	FreeBSD core team	Electric Bivalves Anonymous
On the net, no one can hear you scream.