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From: jkh@freefall.cdrom.com (Jordan K. Hubbard)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc
Subject: Re: Freebsd, Netbsd, 386bsd, how do I find out differences?
Date: 12 Oct 1994 05:14:15 GMT
Organization: Walnut Creek CD-ROM
Lines: 150
Message-ID: <JKH.94Oct11221415@freefall.cdrom.com>
References: <379oi7$113@lynx.dac.neu.edu> <jmonroyCxG2IA.23L@netcom.com>
<JKH.94Oct10033607@freefall.cdrom.com> <37b9iq$d3d@lynx.dac.neu.edu>
<37er5q$724@ivory.lm.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: freefall.cdrom.com
In-reply-to: peterb@telerama.lm.com's message of 11 Oct 1994 16:05:14 -0400
In article <37er5q$724@ivory.lm.com> peterb@telerama.lm.com (Peter Berger) writes:
Ok, I'll start the discussion.
[ A number of revealing comments on the true nature of the Linux, FreeBSD
and NetBSD, all indicating a disturbing degree of insider knowledge,
deleted ]
Ok, who's been talking? The problem is that Peter's `Deep Throat'
source is obviously only well aquainted with half the story. Since
the cat is already out of the bag, I might as well fill in the missing
details, lest even more confusion result.
NetBSD is the best of the three because of it's superb error handling
capabilities (this is the "Net" referred to in the name). With NetBSD,
it's almost impossible to make a mistake, either in installation, or
This is all true. However, it completely fails to mention the true
hidden agenda behind NetBSD, and the _real_ meaning of the name
cloaked behind the clever double-entendre' public relations reference
to its error handling abilities. The first and foremost goal of the
NetBSD project has always been to make money - obscene amounts of
money - and their strategem is cleverly patterned after that of a drug
pusher moving into any new territory. First they give away the code
for free, and they make sure that it's available on as many commercial
platforms as possible ("Pssst! Hey, you in the suit! You want to try
something new? Only fifty cents!"). Once their domination of the BSD
world is complete, a powerful encryption algorithm hidden deep within
the kernel will be activated on July 31st, 1995, turning millions of
happy NetBSD users into panic-stricken, blithering hysterics,
especially once they figure out that NetBSD has also been secretly
stamping their backups in such a way that the data cannot be loaded
back.
At this point, instructions will then flash on a every screen,
informing its hapless user that the resurrection and continued
preservation of their data will require a small but regular percentage
of their net income paid directly into the swiss bank account of the
NetBSD project, hence the "net" in "NetBSD". Some of the more greedy
NetBSD members wanted a percentage of their users' gross income, but
the term "GrossBSD" was deemed unsuitable for marketing reasons.
Fortunately, the future is perhaps not as dark as it looks. A valiant
resistance group, working secretly at the very core of the NetBSD
project (and at great personal risk) are attempting to thwart this
evil scheme by delaying the next release of NetBSD 1.0 until after
July 31st, 1995. After that, the deadly easter-egg will have hatched
harmlessly and been rendered impotent, no longer a danger to the
unsuspecting populace. Please join me for a moment in silent prayer
for the success of these brave individuals. Their sacrifice is for
you.
Linux is the successor to an operating system called "Minix". Linux was
developed by Linus Pauling, a Finnish communist. Linux tries to uphold
traditional Marxist values in several ways; firstly by using GNU tools from
the FSF foundation wherever possible. The Linux kernel is developed by
What you fail to comment on is the existence of a somewhat seedier and
lesser known side to this utopian collective. The nomenclatura! Have
you ever noticed that there's a version of Linux for every man, woman
and child, but that said releases are also very often of substandard
quality? And perhaps you thought that while the quality might not be
top-notch, at least everyone ran the same code and suffered equally
through this brave social experiement together - one community! One
voice!
Oh how sad and disillusioning to say that nothing could be further
from the truth!
While the great majority of Linux users suffer in long ftp queues,
waiting pathetically for their next releases and suffering through all
the bugs that each new release seems to bring, Linus and his inner
circle live in a standard of luxury that would make a Roman emperor
blush with shame! For example, did you know that Linux has fully
symmetric multiprocessing? That it actually runs effectively in 1MB
of memory or less? That all device drivers, filesystems, image
activators and system calls can be loaded and unloaded fully
dynamically during runtime? That it'll run any and all native DOS and
Windows binaries with no loss of performance, and with better crash
protection than OS/2? That the entire code base has been completely
bug-free since August 1993? Of course you didn't - you're running the
publically available version! All of these features have been
available to Linus and his priviledged cronies since almost the
beginning, and the only way to get them for yourself is behave with
extreme obsequiousness towards Linus, join his special "Linux
Entertainment Committee" and pay "Party" dues, laugh at his jokes and
otherwise strive to become part of the priviledged apparatus. Then
you'll get a special pass to guarded ftp sites where ordinary users
aren't allowed, and you can see these bits for yourself. But by then,
of course, it'll be too late for you. You'll have been so corrupted
by power on your way up that you'll no longer wish to fix the flaws in
the system. Oh well. At least it provides an adversary for the *BSD
people to rail against!
FreeBSD was a radical offshoot of the Linux project; you could consider it
to be of the Trotskyite school. FreeBSD supports an extremely wide range
of PC hardware, as long as it was obtained at less than cost. FreeBSD is
used by Amnesty International and many other human rights organizations.
FreeBSD supports every peripheral available for the IBM PC except the ones
you have.
This is all true, and we're very proud of the great strides we've made
towards becoming *the* politically correct operating system for the
'90s! While we must remain ever watchful for any and all infractions
of our code of proper and fair behavior, here are just some of the
milestones we've recently acheived:
o All upper-case identifiers have been replaced with
lower case, thus leveling our codebase fairly. "Upper"
case or "capital" letters are blatantly supremist,
trying to convey the impression that they're somehow better
than their "lower" case brethren purely due to their
increased size. Under FreeBSD, we have no place for
character discrimination by color, font or point size!
o Users with more than 4MB memory have any such extra memory
backfilled with zeros and excluded from the allocation
map. Most users can only afford 4MB of memory, and it's
unfair to encourage those who have been favored by purely
economic circumstance. Likewise, those with 486 and Pentium
machines are busy-looped down to the speed of a 386/25.
o There is no use of "supervisor" and "user" modes - all
processes run with equal access to the processor, and with
the same priority.
o All `man' pages are now `people' pages, and do not contain
any "white" space.
We also must insist that everyone run FreeBSD, especially in
educational institutions or wherever impressionable people congregate.
We are tolerant of all races, creeds, religions and sexual preferences,
except where such individuals deliberately chose to be racist, bigoted,
small-minded, facist death-mongering establishment pigs by not running our
operating system. Power to the people! Free the BSD! Have a nice day.
1) The Free and Net BSD teams split up in the year 1632. The cause of the
split is uncertain, but it seems to have something to do with someone
named "Janice."
This is just total and utter hearsay! None of the FreeBSD or NetBSD
core team members have even *seen* a member of the opposite sex since
they started their respective projects! There's no time! [Note: I
wouldn't mind being sent a few GIFs - it has been a long time, and
I've, well, sort of.. well, I've forgotten what one looks like!
Thanks in advance..]
Jordan