*BSD News Article 88547


Return to BSD News archive

Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.mel.aone.net.au!grumpy.fl.net.au!news.webspan.net!ix.netcom.com!newsfeeds.sol.net!feed1.news.erols.com!super.zippo.com!zdc!szdc!szdc-e!news
From: "John S. Dyson" <dyson@freebsd.org>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.misc
Subject: Re: Linux vs BSD
Date: Fri, 07 Feb 1997 08:44:43 -0500
Organization: John S. Dyson's home machine
Lines: 38
Message-ID: <32FB31CB.41C67EA6@freebsd.org>
References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <5d299q$i6r@josie.abo.fi> <5d80q2$8cn@cynic.portal.ca> <5dacro$r0@josie.abo.fi> <5dd9d7$li1@cynic.portal.ca>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (X11; I; FreeBSD 3.0-CURRENT i386)
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:156669 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:5911 comp.unix.bsd.misc:2336

Curt Sampson wrote:
> 
> In article <5dacro$r0@josie.abo.fi>, Mats Andtbacka <mandtbac@abo.fi> wrote:
> >
> >the reason i don't buy this argument of Stallman's is, i could set up
> >those same GNU utils on a FreeBSD box - maybe even down to GNU libc
> >now that v2.0 of it is going to be the next version of libc on Linux -
> >but that still doesn't mean FreeBSD is Linux. or would you say it is?
> 
> No. Both I and Stallman would say that that system is GNU/FreeBSD.
> You'll note that when I refer to `Linux' I am referring to the
> Linux kernel, which is not a complete OS. When I refer to `GNU/Linux,'
> I am referring to a complete OS.
>
I disagree about the GNU/FreeBSD allusion...

>
> (And before we get into this, yes, FreeBSD and NetBSD do use some
> Gnu software in userland. The reason that I don't refer to NetBSD
> as GNU/NetBSD is because it still runs and is capable of doing a
> lot of things without that Gnu softare.
>
Same as FreeBSD.  We may or may not have picked up a few more
GPL'ed utilities, but a system can be made to run without them.

> Specifically, what would
> be missing from NetBSD if we removed all Gnu software would be:
> the compiler toolchain, uucp, bc, dc, diff, diff3, grep, groff,
> rcs, sdiff, send-pr, and sort. A few of these coule be easily,
> though not efficiently, replaced.)
> 
Essentially the same as FreeBSD +- a few more.

We do allow people to create a GPL encumbered kernel, but
we will not ship one with the GPL restrictions.

John