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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.misc:2834 comp.os.linux.misc:20321 Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!cs.mu.OZ.AU!mrg From: mrg@mame.mu.OZ.AU (matthew green) Subject: Re: Usefulness of BSD/Linux Source Knowledge (was BSD vs. LINUX) Message-ID: <cln.775305310@dynamo> Sender: news@cs.mu.OZ.AU Organization: Computer Science, University of Melbourne, Australia X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #4 References: <30jqp1$ees@grex.cyberspace.org> <1994Jul21.182603.15882@belvedere.sbay.org> <2NsBkiCqLiLU068yn@cs.odu.edu> <30pn0a$9rf@hermes.unt.edu> <CtEuyA.En1@world.std.com> <1994Jul24.185248.5906@escape.widomaker.com> Date: Wed, 27 Jul 1994 10:35:10 GMT Lines: 70 shendrix@escape.widomaker.com (Shannon Hendrix) writes: >Linux is probably more applicable to the future of UNIX than BSD. It's >following POSIX very closely and all other OS are going that way too. >It's also very much like SysV and has most of the BSD stuff in it. as i've pointed out before, netbsd and freebsd (and 4.4, for that matter), -also- follow posix carefully. and as jtc rightly pointed out, none of them have been tested, though, so none can _claim_ posix conformance. >Also, SunOS is no longer a port of BSD. It's yet another version of >SVR4.2 now, not BSD. It's been that way since Solaris 2 was released >and it is the future, like it or not. sunos 5 is not svr4.2 - it is svr4.0 dynamo ~> telnet foo Trying 123.456.78.9 ... Connected to foo.blah. Escape character is '^]'. UNIX(r) System V Release 4.0 (foo) login: as much as sun hate it, sunos4 is still alive and kicking, currently. sadly though, it won't last. >: With Linux I felt I would be spending my time learning the guts of >: a system written by Linus. While that may be very educational it doesnt >: do much for my ability to say "Our OS works like THIS" > >He wrote it following POSIX and standard UNIX so it's mostly the same. posix doesn't get your that much, really. it is very very restrictive to write _purely_ posix code. (if you want to discuss this further, take it to email, or to some other group - it does not belong here). >: Before somebody flames me let me provide an example. If I wanted to >: understand how Ultrix computes the loadaverage I could go to FreeBSD >: and get a pretty good idea how it is done. Where does Linux get its >: code for the loadaverage? Is it a total rewrite? If so how can I >: make any other choice except FreeBSD. > >Because BSD is dead. I wish it were not so because I prefer BSD but >SVR4.2 is the future of UNIX, not BSD. You actually made a wrong >choice by your own critieria. why is bsd dead? there are _several_ commercial bsd unixes available, but no linux ones. i don't see why you think bsd is dead. >Anyway, the two are fine Unices so you should choose what you like best. >What you learn in either one is good for you and the differences between >the two are shrinking because SVR4.2 and Linux have most of BSD in them >and BSD is getting a lot of the stuff from SysV in it. Like I said, >all OS are merging and your learning won't be wasted either way. you claim that bsd is dead, above, and then state here that it is `getting a lot of the stuff from SysV' in it. i wish at&t would die, and take svr4 with it. it's really sad that svr4 is the ``industry standard.'' .mrg.