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Xref: sserve comp.os.linux.misc:26132 comp.os.386bsd.misc:3615 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!quagga.ru.ac.za!Braae!g89r4222 From: csgr@cs.ru.ac.za (Geoff Rehmet) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.misc Subject: Re: Nailed down to 386bsd or linux, now which one? Date: 4 Oct 1994 19:22:26 GMT Organization: Rhodes University Computing Services Lines: 71 Message-ID: <36sa1i$1l7@quagga.ru.ac.za> References: <36djkn$nm8@girtab.usc.edu> <36nd1u$d80@pdq.coe.montana.edu> <jeffpkCx4wtM.B64@netcom.com> Reply-To: csgr@cs.ru.ac.za NNTP-Posting-Host: braae.ru.ac.za X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #4 (NOV) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In <jeffpkCx4wtM.B64@netcom.com> jeffpk@netcom.com (Jeff Kesselman) writes: >Actually, as I understand it, this was not what the poster was talkign >about. From his parenthetical statement, I think he's referring to the >fact that Linux is being developed openly by a large group, while FreeBSD >is controlled and dvevloped by one fairly closed group. (I don't know if >thsi is true, BTW., I've just heard thsi claim before.) This has been a topic of debate previously as well. FreeBSD's development is open to anyone who wants to take part. The official distributions happen to be coordinated by a group of people. This group is a dynamic entity. People come and go with time (I think it is fair to say that there are more coming than going). Anybody can contribute code for inclusion into the releases -- if enough people like it, it is really good, or you bug someone with commit priveledges long enough, then it will get in. (A warning here: if you contribute enough code, you will probably be given commit priveleges, you will cease to have a social life, and get very little sleep. :-)) The Linux kernel is coordinated by one person (Linus). Anybody can contribute code to it. Thus there is not much difference here, except that a group of people maintain the FreeBSD sources, whereas one person maintains the Linux kernel. Other parts of Linux are maintained by individuals or groups, and distributions are done by yet other groups. (With FreeBSD there just happens to be one team, who work together on shipping the kernel, the userland, packages, and the whole damn thang.) I don't think it is fair to say that either is more or less open, or that the latest sources of one are more quickly available than the other. (You can get the latest source changes to FreeBSD within hours of the commits going through.) Anyone can subscribe to the mailing list which carries the commit log entries for source changes made, and can make their comments about the changes. I don't know if there is any such way of getting to-the-minute updates of source changes made to Linux. (I wouldn't hazard a guess on how soon after a source change is made in Linux, it becomes available to the general hacking public.) I think the comment that Linux is developed by a large open group as against FreeBSD being controlled by a small number of people is incorrect. This is just failing to see the difference between the group of people who develop the system, and the group of people who take the responsibility of making sure that code repositories get maintained properly, that releases get rolled etc. etc. It is probably fair enough to say that both are developed by large groups of developers/hackers, while the way in which maintenance of source code (CVS etc), and the rolling of releases is done is very different. I don't think that anyone should go attacking either way as being bad, but should just stick with the system they think is good, and do some decent hacking, and contribute some nice code to it. This question is again open to debate. Some people are going to assert that the approach taken by FreeBSD and NetBSD is more open, whereas, others will advocate the Linux approach. Geoff. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQBVAgUBLpGrbcmtR07KMR7ZAQH3rwIAq67JxcIPvsA3CVJBgBlwUD3Z8TrXml+X koGl/NY+Unq8MqYUupTkis9A7QSY3+EJkd4c1WVBfSEu+sA8RXSggA== =/o5D -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Geoff Rehmet, Computer Science Department, Rhodes University, South Africa FreeBSD core team: csgr@freebsd.org | ____ _ o /\ csgr@cs.ru.ac.za, geoff@neptune.ru.ac.za |___ _-\_<, / /\/\ finger rehmet@cs.ru.ac.za for PGP public key | (*)/'(*) /\/ / \ \