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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!agate!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!pipex!uknet!cf-cm!isl-gate.elsy.cf.ac.uk!paul From: paul@isl-gate.elsy.cf.ac.uk (Paul) Subject: Re: 4.4-lite? Message-ID: <1994Jul8.131909.11707@cm.cf.ac.uk> Sender: paul@isl-gate.elsy.cf.ac.uk (Paul) Organization: ELSYM, University of Wales, College of Cardiff, UK. References: <2vgvc7$3tg@spruce.cic.net> Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 13:19:07 +0000 Lines: 53 In article <2vgvc7$3tg@spruce.cic.net>, Paul Southworth <pauls@locust.cic.net> wrote: >In article <1994Jul6.140031.23668@resonex.com>, >The Superuser <root@resonex.com> wrote: >>On the other hand, NetBSD has not had an official release for over a >>year, when 0.9 became available. Supposedly, NetBSD 1.0 is going to >>come out this month. I hope so --- FreeBSD has had several good >>releases in that same period. > >...on one platform... Don't deny that, rather self evident. These comments are slighty inflammatory so I'm going to put a few things straight. >I think not. The two development groups really appear to be serving >different audiences, and I think they both serve very well. If the NetBSD >crowd subscribed to the more sequestered development process and didn't >make code changes (released to the public) every day then you would just >see two FreeBSD's -- that is, two nice i386 ports of BNR2/4.4lite. >Thankfully that's how it is, and now NetBSD runs on many machines, with >development progressing in leaps as committed individuals produce and >release code for their ports and end up with immediate feedback and >deployment in the field. There is a certain ideological difference in the approaches of the two groups but it is entirely incorrect to say thet FreeBSD development is sequestered. FreeBSD-current has had changes made to it about every hour of the day while we were working on Net2 code, it certainly wasn't hidden away and was most definately available to the public -- whatever gave the impression that it was not? Now that we're switching to 4.4 code we're keeping the initial work a little hidden so that only those that really know what they're doing use it. It's there for all to see on Freefall for the FreeBSD developers but it's not been put up as the new -current yet because it still has some nasty problems and won't even compile in its entirety. To avoid a deluge of "2.0 erased my hard disk" type reports we're going to make sure it's at least useable before widening access. This is no different to the magnum branch of NetBSD which most definately was hidden away. Also, FreeBSD 2.0 will be a completely new release based entirely on 4.4lite. We started with a virgin 4.4lite src base and re-did all the missing bits to get it to work. We did this to ensure without any doubt that we were unencumbered. This is in total contrast to NetBSD which has been pulling bits over from 4.4lite into NetBSD-current to replace the encumbered parts. The two different strategies inevitably result in different timescales and approaches to the upcoming 4.4 based releases. -- Paul Richards, FreeBSD core team member. Intelligent Systems Laboratory, ELSYM ,University of Wales, College Cardiff Internet: paul@isl.cf.ac.uk, JANET(UK): RICHARDSDP@CARDIFF.AC.UK