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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.announce:162 comp.os.386bsd.misc:1531 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!agate!agate!usenet From: jkh@whisker.lotus.ie (Jordan K. Hubbard) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.announce,comp.os.386bsd.misc Subject: Status on discussed merge between NetBSD and FreeBSD Followup-To: comp.os.386bsd.misc Date: 13 Nov 1993 22:31:38 -0800 Organization: Lotus Development Ireland Lines: 102 Sender: cgd@agate.berkeley.edu Approved: 386bsd-announce-request@agate.berkeley.edu Message-ID: <JKH.93Nov13222001.2@whisker.lotus.ie> NNTP-Posting-Host: agate.berkeley.edu This statement is being released in hope of putting to rest some of the general questions and rumors currently floating around in respect to the long discussed merger between the FreeBSD and NetBSD groups. Merge ----- Due to various problems, and in the face of fundamental differences of opinion regarding future goals and design strategies, all merger talks between the groups have been suspended and the proposed merger postponed indefinately. The FreeBSD and NetBSD groups will not be merging at any point in the near future, and each group will be pursuing its own schedules and delivery dates for future release. What this means to you ---------------------- Despite various accusations and counter-accusations recently levied in some of the comp.os.386bsd.* newsgroups, both operating systems have reached the point where they are both very useful (and relatively stable) development platforms for the Intel architecture, and no one would be wrong in chosing either of the two offerings. The currently outstanding technical differences between the two systems will also, it is quite likely, continue to shrink with time and both systems will probably seek their own unique areas of differentiation outside the realm of adding features to the basic kernel. Neither system plans to stand still over the next 6 months, and each has a reasonably large enough user base to ensure that new ideas, corrections and general clean-up work will continue [in both camps] for some time to come. Wouldn't a merge have been better? ---------------------------------- There is no question that work duplication and other technical issues would have been avoided or made simpler under a merge, but for various reasons it has nonetheless remained outside the realm of practicality; please remember that what looks very simple from an outsider's point of view is often anything but. In any case, work will still continue apace in both camps, and history has generally shown that a little "competition" has never hurt anyone when it comes to providing motivation for improvement and forward movement. We tried to negotiate a merge, it didn't work, so we have to cut our losses and move forward. End of story. Is the matter truly closed? --------------------------- Yes. Please don't bombard us with email saying "Please merge!" or "Why can't you merge? Why?!?" - believe me, we've gotten every possible variation on the theme you might imagine, and we've done our best to explain in more emails than we can count, so kindly do us a favor and don't send us even more. We need to get on with our work on FreeBSD, and such things only sap our time and hinder our progress. To answer the next question: Conversations on this matter to date have been, of necessity, constrained to private email due to the fact that the situation has always been somewhat volatile, and public statements concerning the inner workings of the merge negotiations while they were in progress would have made them even more difficult. We also hope that this statement will help put an end to some of the unfortunate (and wholly unnecessary) public bickering between the two groups. We're two groups, providing BSD technology to the world at large for free and at considerably cost to ourselves in terms of time and energy, so the last thing we need is the ball-and chain of internecine warfare attached to our feet - it only aggravates all of us and delays the progress of your favorite operating system! Please help by cooperating with all of us in trying to put this somewhat difficult time behind us, and continuing to provide the extremely helpful feedback and assistance that has made both groups possible (and certainly 386BSD itself, with which we also desire only the best relations). Those who can provide common technology in a group-neutral fashion are the most helpful of all, and we encourage all of you to do what you can to see that both groups go forward. This is all about free software, after all, and should not be about ideological divisions or matters of personal ego. Thank you! (The FreeBSD team) -- (Jordan K. Hubbard) jkh@violet.berkeley.edu, jkh@al.org, jkh@whisker.lotus.ie I do not speak for Lotus, nor am I even a Lotus employee. I am an independent contractor. -- Please send submissions for comp.os.386bsd.announce to: 386bsd-announce@agate.berkeley.edu