*BSD News Article 50259


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From: tls@cloud9.net (Thor Lancelot Simon)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: DEBATE:  BSD vs. Linux
Date: 5 Sep 1995 13:05:53 GMT
Organization: Cloud 9 Internet, White Plains, New York, USA
Lines: 29
Message-ID: <42hhvh$h5g@news.cloud9.net>
References: <4233kp$t8p@hilly.apci.net> <MICHAELV.95Sep3212838@mindbender.headcandy.com> <42gn16$98f@klaava.helsinki.fi> <MICHAELV.95Sep5002229@MindBender.HeadCandy.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cloud9.net
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:928 comp.os.linux.advocacy:19143

In article <MICHAELV.95Sep5002229@MindBender.HeadCandy.com>,
Michael L. VanLoon <michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> wrote:
>In article <42gn16$98f@klaava.helsinki.fi> torvalds@cc.Helsinki.FI (Linus Torvalds) writes:
>
>   In article <MICHAELV.95Sep3212838@mindbender.headcandy.com>,
>   Michael L. VanLoon <michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> wrote:
>
>   >Does it say whether Linux/Alpha is a 32-bit kernel, as has been widely
>   >reported in the past.  For argument's sake, the NetBSD/Alpha kernel is
>   >fully 64-bit, just like Digital Unix (a.k.a. OSF/1).
>
>   Linux/alpha is a fully 64-bit kernel, quite like NetBSD and OSF/1.  Also
>   like NetBSD (?) linux is also OSF/1 binary compatible, including OSF/1
>   shared libraries etc. 
>
>Just for the record, the answer to your "?" is yes, NetBSD/Alpha runs
>OSF/1 binaries (that's how it was initially bootstrapped).  It's just
>one of a vast collection of well-abstracted compat code, actually.

It is worth note that NetBSD/Alpha does _not_ currently run dynamically 
linked OSF/1 binaries due to undocumented aspects of the behaviour of the
OSF/1 shared library loader, unless cgd has made a big change since I 
last looked.

Perhaps the Linux code could be used as documentation. :-)
-- 
Thor Lancelot Simon                                               tls@cloud9.net
 
Don't let your mouth write no check that your tail can't cash.      --Bo Diddley