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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!news.sol.net!news.inc.net!novia!news.sprintlink.net!new-news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!news.inap.net!news1!dyson.iquest.net!usenet From: "John S. Dyson" <toor@dyson.iquest.net> Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs Linux X-Nntp-Posting-Host: dyson.iquest.net Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Message-ID: <3167FB12.167EB0E7@dyson.iquest.net> Sender: root@dyson.iquest.net Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: John S. Dyson's home machine References: <4issad$h1o@nadine.teleport.com> <4jejjt$cdb@park.uvsc.edu> <315E0F1A.4E3FB53D@lucon.org> <Pine.LNX.3.91.960401105810.31921A-100000@gallup.cia-g.com> <4jso8v$n5i@dyson.iquest.net> <31642098.75AB4317@gnu.ai.mit.edu> <4k2cvc$j8e@park.uvsc.edu> <316613A1.59E2B600@progroup.com> <3166EBE1.165ECBF3@lucon.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sun, 7 Apr 1996 18:08:43 GMT X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b2 (X11; I; FreeBSD 2.2-CURRENT i386) Lines: 32 H.J. Lu wrote: > > Here is one who has a clue. BTW, I wrote a paper on ELF: > > ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC/elf.ps.gz > I know about that, but there is a tradeoff of "doing it right" vs. just doing it. I guess that we are stuck with the conservatism of being older and careful. The gain of an ABI flash cut (as opposed to an evolution) appears to be small compared to the cost to our user base. On FreeBSD we have NO problems with running multiple binary formats simultaneously (with different emulators.) Just because a.out is still the primary binary format doesn't mean that ELF won't work very efficiently. Right now, I am typing this on Netscape Atlas for BSDI (just as easily could be using Netscape for Linux.) Absolutely no performance hit. There is the issue of multiple shared libs in memory in other cases, but FreeBSD converges to a small working set quickly, under low memory onditions. Maybe in 2.2, there will be the option to install ELF develompent tools (the current kernel supports it already.) The kernel already supports running the code. The userland can choose any development tools that it wants, but as shipped FreeBSD will support a.out as it's primary format for now. If there is a compelling argument that the current format is *broken*, we will flash cut. It is just a cost/benefit tradeoff. John