*BSD News Article 30017


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
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From: daniels@biles.com (Brad Daniels)
Subject: Re: One more BSD?? just say no. (was Re: Where do we go from here?)
References: <MYCROFT.94Apr25162542@duality.gnu.ai.mit.edu> <1994Apr26.060607.17149@wx.gtegsc.com>
Organization: Biles and Associates
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 1994 17:39:50 GMT
Message-ID: <CovnqF.AyK@biles.com>
Lines: 36

In article <1994Apr26.060607.17149@wx.gtegsc.com>,
Michael Hoegeman <mh@wx.gtegsc.com> wrote:
...
>Not to degrade NetBSD and other fine efforts but I would say that bell
>has not exactly extinguished their portion of the unix flame.  I mean
>there is Plan 9 after all. 
>
>It can certainly be argued that Plan 9 is the "next" unix (so to speak)
>and that the various BSD's in comparison are just fanning an ember. I
>understand my analogies are not completely fair but you can see the point
>I'm trying to make.

I tend to disagree.  I have read a few articles on Plan 9, and I attended
Ritchie's talk at Uniforum, and Plan 9 really doesn't look that exciting
except for its signature feature, the ability to have multiple views of
file systems.  However, the Hurd has the same features, and assuming
it ever actually gets out the door, looks substantially more promising.
I'm also not entirely confident that Plan 9's macrokernel approach is
advisable, even though its current incarnation is smaller than most
microkernels.  Early implementations of Unix were smaller than Plan 9,
and look where we are now.  I may not be being fair, since I'm sure
Plan 9 has substantially more power than early Unixes, but I see no
reason to believe that it will grow any less than Unix kernels did as
functionality gets added.  I think BSD has a fair chunk of good life in
it until these other efforts become substantially more mature.  I also think
the Hurd has a better chance of widespread success because it will be freely
available to anyone, not just to academia.  As far as I know, Plan 9 is
currently available only to universities, and I have no reason to suspect
that it will be cheap when it becomes available outside of universities.

- Brad
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+ Brad Daniels                  | "Let others praise ancient times;    +
+ Biles and Associates          |  I am glad I was born in these."     +
+ These are my views, not B&A's |           - Ovid (43 B.C. - 17 A.D.) +
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