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From: db@diana.ocunix.on.ca (Dyane Bruce)
Subject: NetBSD+FreeBSD merge urged!
Message-ID: <1993Sep18.002438.24884@diana.ocunix.on.ca>
Organization: db Software
References: <JTSILLA.93Sep12213741@damon.ccs.northeastern.edu> <277do6$4hj@fw.novatel.ca> <hastyCDGHIw.L8F@netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Sep 1993 00:24:38 GMT
Lines: 58

[I have changed the Subject line to reflect the new topic,
but kept the References... ]

In article <hastyCDGHIw.L8F@netcom.com> hasty@netcom.com (Amancio Hasty Jr) writes:
>In article <277do6$4hj@fw.novatel.ca> hpeyerl@novatel.ca (Herb Peyerl) writes:
>>
>>NOTE:  This is a repost of message <276kq0$2u9@fw.novatel.ca> (T.P.)
>>
>>James Tsillas (jtsilla@damon.ccs.northeastern.edu) wrote:
>>
>>: Having two very similar (if not three) operating systems seems to me
>>: like a incredible waste of personal resource and will give rise to much
>>: duplicate (triplicate?) work for what appear to be simply religious
>>: reasons.
>>: There are no good reasons that I can see for keeping the efforts
>>: separate. The arguments that we need an experimental release of the OS
>>
>>I don't understand what all the whining is about... I see nothing wrong
>>with a little bit of parallelism... After all; where would the world be
>
>We do have a very strong competition and it is called Linux. 
>If we wish to win against linux, we are going to need everything
>that we got plus a bit more like in terms of marketing to spread
>the *bsd word around.
>
>	Amancio

  Exactly what I said in the thread of NetBSD vs. FreeBSD. I have to
repeat myself. Cooperation now is important for the survival
of BSD, healthy competition can come later....

  Linux just about has "WINE" (A WABI lookalike), and now runs
(Or very shortly will run) SCO binaries has a DOS emulator etc.
Running some SCO binaries makes it commercially viable...

  I evaluated Linux a few months ago (As well as NetBSD 0.8) for
a client. At that time Linux made me puke :-) (The source code
for some of the drivers *sucked* big time. For example figure out
whether you are a NE2000 or not by reading the high order bytes
out of the boards ether address and using that... *yuck* and this
was only one example...) But maybe I will have to re-evaluate the latest
and greatest of Linux....

  The point is, Bill has abrogated leadership. Cooperate on a stable
Kernel. There are competing _distributions_ of Linux (SLS, Slackware
come to mind...) but they both use the same Kernel. What is wrong
with having a merged Kernel but different install/distribution
policies. One for *hackers* and one for newbies?

  Hell, once I get back on my feet financially I'd be quite
willing to write in an ELF or COFF loader. Thinking about Writing
a WABI emulator makes me sick, then I'd have to understand
the Windows API.... :-)

-- 
Dyane Bruce				db@diana.ocunix.on.ca
29 Vanson Ave. Nepean On, K2E 6A9	So who first started the tradition of
613-225-9920				putting witty sayings in sigs anyway?