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From: ewt@merengue.unc.edu (Erik Troan)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: I hope this won't ignite a major flame war, but I've got to know!
Date: 18 Jul 1994 16:46:33 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Lines: 44
Message-ID: <30ebl9$ur3@bigblue.oit.unc.edu>
References: <30drlt$7tc@news.u.washington.edu> <1994Jul18.093302.19670@wmichgw> <30e4dr$jno@bigblue.oit.unc.edu> <30e681$mvh@spruce.cic.net>
NNTP-Posting-Host: merengue.oit.unc.edu
In article <30e681$mvh@spruce.cic.net>,
Paul Southworth <pauls@locust.cic.net> wrote:
>In article <30e4dr$jno@bigblue.oit.unc.edu>,
>Erik Troan <ewt@merengue.unc.edu> wrote:
>>2) BSD has a crowded namespace. Should you install 386BSD, FreeBSD, or NetBSD?
>> They're all similiar, they just happen to be different. There's only one
>> Linux kernel...
>
>... per week!
>
>Really, the number of different versions of the Linux kernel in use today
>must number in the thousands, many of them at least partly incompatible.
>I really like Linux (it's the OS of choice for my crappy 386SL laptop with
>4Mb RAM and only 60Mb disk -- the BSD distributions just don't fit) but
>I don't think you can get away with describing it as in any way monolithic.
You're missing my point - one group of people hands out Linux kernels.
There are bug fixes, enhancements, etc., but one set of version numbers
and one place to go and get it.
>And there are only two choices for the BSD systems: FreeBSD and NetBSD.
>386BSD doesn't exist any more. (Well actually I shouldn't say that since
>you can still find copies of DOS 2.0 as well.) Anyway, it's no longer a
>viable option for most users; its developers do not interact its users.
My post was talking about the Linux/BSD histories - 386BSD was an option
for a long time.
>I think the choice between FreeBSD and NetBSD is really not that hard to
>sort out, at least no more difficult than deciding which Linux distribution
>to install. Slackware, SLS, TAMU, Debian, etc etc.
Maybe not, but FreeBSD and NetBSD feel like different beasts. They have
different development groups and different feature sets. The Linux
distributions use the same basic kernel (well, SLS doesn't, but nobody
uses SLS anymore), the same X system, the same set of utilities, etc. The
installation is different, but the base code isn't.
Erik
--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm not like that -- except when I am" ewt@sunsite.unc.edu = Erik Troan
gr-ewt@druid.csc.ncsu.edu
- Nora from "Pump up the Volume" http://sunsite.unc.edu/ewt