Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.os.linux.misc:11099 comp.unix.bsd:13625
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!yoyo.aarnet.edu.au!news.adelaide.edu.au!news.cs.su.oz.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!MathWorks.Com!uhog.mit.edu!nntp.club.cc.cmu.edu!honeydew.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!husc-news.harvard.edu!husc.harvard.edu!scunix2!dholland
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: BSD vs. Linux
Message-ID: <DHOLLAND.94Mar14164302@husc7.harvard.edu>
From: dholland@husc7.harvard.edu (David Holland)
Date: 14 Mar 94 16:43:02
References: <DHOLLAND.94Mar13163925@husc7.harvard.edu> <SJA.94Mar14164332@gamma.hut.fi>
Distribution: inet
Organization: irrelevant
NNTP-Posting-Host: husc7.harvard.edu
Lines: 51
sja@snakemail.hut.fi's message of 14 Mar 94 14:43:32 GMT said:
> Unused hardware can be usually configured out of the kernel.
> I seriously doubt that whatever unused hardware support remains
> is going to make a big difference.
That was just an example. There are all sorts of areas where excess
junk floats in.
Let's see:
> $ ls -l /linux
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 502276 Apr 25 1993 /linux
>
> # ls -l /netbsd
> -rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 491594 Feb 28 16:23 /netbsd
caylith# ll /vmlinux
---------- 1 kernel kernel 215556 Mar 4 23:03 /vmlinux
Of course, my kernel is compressed. Maybe yours isn't.
> As long as kernel sizes are the same within a few hundred kB,
> the "lots of kernel code for exotic hardware" theory has a
> definite problem.
Code size is only part of it. Speed is another part. The memory
requirements of the basic utilities, too.
When your machine has 4 megs of memory, a "few hundred kB", as you
say, can mean the difference between a minute to compile and ten
minutes thrashing to swap space.
> > Are you going to convince me that BSD
> > doesn't suffer from the same sorts of problems?
>
> Probably not.
Oops. I meant to say "are you going to TRY TO convince me..." :-)
As I said before, maybe NetBSD has gone on a diet, but when I went
looking I was told it required a more powerful system than I had,
whereas Linux didn't.
--
- David A. Holland | "The right to be heard does not automatically
dholland@husc.harvard.edu | include the right to be taken seriously."
- - - - - - - - - -
This message shall NOT be quoted or copied out of the electronic medium
in which it originated without explicit permission from the author.