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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!pravda.aa.msen.com!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsserver.jvnc.net!stevens-tech.edu!linux.stevens-tech.edu!kmh From: kmh@linux.stevens-tech.edu (Kurt M. Hockenbury) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Re: Why isn't NetBSD popular? Followup-To: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Date: 3 Sep 1995 03:42:05 GMT Organization: Stevens Institute of Technology Lines: 33 Message-ID: <42b86d$tl0@apocalypse.dmi.stevens-tech.edu> References: <41j8ek$gq2@wolfe.wimsey.com> <41ki0u$7lr@news.belwue.de> <41l252$fia@wolfe.wimsey.com> <422saj$ege@news.belwue.de> <42389i$dn7@wolfe.wimsey.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: linux.stevens-tech.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:902 comp.unix.bsd.misc:197 comp.os.linux.advocacy:18845 Curt Sampson (curt@cynic.portal.ca) wrote: : >Many potential users were scared off from the USL lawsuit. This maybe : >wasn't heroic, but this way things happend. : This doesn't seem likely to me (or at least it seems unlikely that they : went to Linux, rather than a commercial OS). Could provide some backing : for this statement? Well, I wouldn't say "many" (I don't think *BSD and Linux users combined amounted to "many" compared to now), but I do recall seeing some people who were wary of *BSD during the USL lawsuit, and some of whom went with linux instead. Why is it so surprising to you that some people interested in *BSD went to Linux, instead of a commercial OS? If they were potential *BSD people, Linux would be closer (in terms of being free, source available) to what they were looking for than say, Dell's SYSV offering. You also have to remember the differences between the OS's from a user perspective were greater at that time. *BSD had mostly working networking (small choice of cards), while linux's was just starting (in fact, the USL lawsuit is one of the reasons linux didn't use the BSD network code, as I recall). OTOH, linux had shared libraries and could run on 386sx's with 2megs of memory and 40mb disk, where *BSD couldn't. Nowadays, as the creatures feep in, the two are less dissimilar from a user perspective. But linux has an edge in numbers, and that causes a feedback loop, both directly (word of mouth) and indirectly (more drivers, more ported software). -Kurt snail://USA/07030/NJ/Hoboken/PO Box 5136/Kurt M. Hockenbury http://linux.stevens-tech.edu/kmh/kmh-fun.html