*BSD News Article 88500


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From: Gerry S Hayes <sumner@CMU.EDU>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: Linux vs BSD
Date: Thu,  6 Feb 1997 14:34:56 -0500
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 39
Distribution: comp
Message-ID: <0myX9U200YUf09B6Y0@andrew.cmu.edu>
References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <Pine.SOL.3.91.970201040446.16129A-100000@ux8.cso.uiuc.edu> <32F3810D.237C228A@FreeBSD.org> <5d299q$i6r@josie.abo.fi>
	<5d80q2$8cn@cynic.portal.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: po7.andrew.cmu.edu
In-Reply-To: <5d80q2$8cn@cynic.portal.ca>
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:5905 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2325 comp.os.linux.misc:156628

cjs@cynic.portal.ca (Curt Sampson) writes:
> In article <5d299q$i6r@josie.abo.fi>, Mats Andtbacka <mandtbac@abo.fi> wrote:
> >
> >(and no, i don't see Linux as being "fragmented" due to there being
> >different distributions. that's because i don't buy Stallman's silly
> >argument that "the utilities are part of the OS"; the kernel, in my
> >opinion, defines the OS, and there can be only one Linux kernel.)
> 
> So how many people do you know running just the Linux kernel,
> without any of those GNU utilities or shells?
> 

The same number as those I know who run Win95 without Microsoft Word
(Or Minesweeper, for that matter).  None.  So what?  The GNU utilities
are some of the most useful applications for Linux; some of them
(emacs, gcc) are some of the most useful applications for *BSD as
well.  They still aren't part of the OS, by my definition.  (To me,
the OS is the abstraction from hardware.  I can write software that
doesn't care about the hardware if you give me the Linux kernel; the
same binaries will run if I change hard drives, CPUs, motherboards,
mice, whatever.  I can't if you take the kernel away.  The device
drivers in the X distribution are part of the OS by this definition,
and I'm a cautious supporter of the GGI project to seperate the device
drivers from the X server, SVGALib, or other windowing system.)
  
  It takes an OS and applications to have a usable computing
environment.  I think that gcc alone warrants the mention of GNU and
the FSF when talking about free Unices, and I always try to give
Stallman et alia their due; I also try to give the XFree folks, Larry
Wall, D. E. Knuth, the BSD folk, and others their due.  C'est la
guerre.  

Cordially,

  Sumner

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