Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!yarrina.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.hawaii.edu!ames!usenet.kornet.nm.kr!news.kreonet.re.kr!news.dacom.co.kr!news.netins.net!newsrelay.netins.net!solaris.cc.vt.edu!news.seanet.com!news.seanet.com!michaelv From: michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.advocacy,comp.unix.misc Subject: Re: Linux vs FreeBSD Date: 03 Dec 1995 23:40:35 GMT Organization: HeadCandy Associates... Sweets for the lobes. Lines: 62 Message-ID: <MICHAELV.95Dec3154035@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> References: <489kuu$rbo@pelican.cs.ucla.edu> <49o2n2$t4e@daffy.anetsrvcs.uwrf.edu> <49osrd$ptg@times.tfs.com> <49pb5g$di8@agate.berkeley.edu> <49qbgp$etc@zuul.nmti.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: mindbender.seanet.com In-reply-to: peter@nmti.com's message of 2 Dec 1995 20:04:41 GMT Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.advocacy:29023 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:9713 comp.unix.advocacy:11662 comp.unix.misc:19785 In article <49qbgp$etc@zuul.nmti.com> peter@nmti.com (Peter da Silva) writes: In article <49pb5g$di8@agate.berkeley.edu>, Nick Kralevich <nickkral@parker.EECS.Berkeley.EDU> wrote: > It seems that some of the NetBSD people rejected a person named Theo > De Raadt from the core development team, and that person went out and > created another distribution called OpenBSD (http://www.openbsd.org/). > So I agree with the person who called BSD a "Developer's Guild". > It just doesn't seem that open to me when the developers of an > operating system kick someone out of the development environment. NetBSD != FreeBSD Thanks for that entirely unhelpful statement, Peter. I'm not sure what that has to do with this discussion. FreeBSD also has a core team. Theo was a core member of the NetBSD team. This means he was one of four people who could make policy decisions about the future of NetBSD, was a spokesman for NetBSD proper, and could make sweeping changes to the entire NetBSD source tree without restraint. He was one of four people who had complete control over NetBSD. The other three decided that he didn't represent NetBSD in the light they wanted it represented him and removed him from this position. They did not remove his access to read daily source changes, since any person in the world can do this. An adequate analogy is having a person on the board of a corporation removed by other members of the board. There needs to be *someone* who gives NetBSD (and FreeBSD) direction. That is the core group. Consider it a multi-person equivalent to Linus in the Linux world. Theo was removed from this group. He was still able to submit any sources changes to someone with check-in privs if he desired, but he declined to do so. How was he kicked out of the development environment? On the other hand, Theo was able to take the entire NetBSD source tree and start his own BSD for two reasons. 1) The entire source tree, with complete development source, was available to all who would want it, including Theo. 2) The BSD copyright precludes anyone from denying the use of these sources for any reason, as long as copyrights are kept intact on the files. Now, how is this an exclusive Developers Guild? > As for the "openness" of FreeBSD development, I refer you (again) to the > following threads from comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc: [SNIP] > Summary: You have to be a member of the BSD core team to be able > to see any real changes in the source code. I'm not a member of the core team. I'm sitting here looking at the latest entry in the commit logs. And the files... what was that again? Exactly my point. -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Michael L. VanLoon michaelv@HeadCandy.com --< Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x >-- NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, HP300, Sun3, Sun4, DEC PMAX (MIPS), DEC Alpha, PC532 NetBSD ports in progress: VAX, Atari 68k, others... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -