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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.questions:8746 comp.os.386bsd.misc:1941 Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.os.386bsd.misc Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU!werple.apana.org.au!zikzak.apana.org.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!yeshua.marcam.com!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!cs.utk.edu!martha.utcc.utk.edu!martha.utcc.utk.edu!frank From: frank@martha.utcc.utk.edu (frank segner) Subject: Re: [q] Why (Free & Net)BSD use different binaries? Message-ID: <1994Feb15.071540.8607@martha.utcc.utk.edu> Sender: usenet@martha.utcc.utk.edu (USENET News System) Organization: ifan (inst. for appl. nonsense) X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL3 References: <2jotfv$irj@homer.cs.mcgill.ca> Date: Tue, 15 Feb 1994 07:15:40 GMT Lines: 150 once you asked me about the differences ??? here they go... storm@cs.mcgill.ca (Marc WANDSCHNEIDER) writes: : In article <CL7tvx.A74@news.cis.umn.edu>, : Pitt Cheang <cheangk@marlin.micro.umn.edu> wrote: : >I have been using Linux for a while and very happy with it, browsing through : >386bsd newsgroups and having some opinion compare between the two different : >multiprocessing OS, makes me want to try how 386bsd taste. I believe people : >from here would suggest either FreeBSD or NetBSD, however I have a question : >thought. Why would there exist two versions of XFree86 for FreeBSD and : >NetBSD ? Motif ? If both are diversed from 386bsd, I couldn't think of : >any ideas what is the difference would make seperate binaries, are they : >different in binary code or just filesystem structure? Are the different : >in kernel code ? or are they just different in distribution method? : >Right now have just downloaded FreeBSD, (it takes me two days to get : >them all), should I try NetBSD also? : : sigh. : : in the beginning, there was 386bsd. Bill Jolitz, a weird guy : to say the least, ported the BSD 4.3 Net/2 code to intel i386 : chip. the port kinda worked and kinda did most unix things : that people want it to do, except it was extremely unstable, : buggy, and to some people, poorly written. however, it was : free, and there was an excellent series of articles in dr.dobbs : journal startin in jan 91 i believe that described the porting : process. : : a bunch of people who were working on 386bsd started up what : became the 'patchkit' for 386bsd. every once in a while, : a whole collection of patches and bug fixes would be submitted : that people could add to their source tree to make it run : better. : : all the while, bill jolitz was promising the imminent release : of 386bsd version 0.2 [up until then, there had been 0.0 and : 0.1 only]. this version of 386bsd was promised to: : : 1. fix everything broken in 0.1 : 2. contain a real sysv streams implementation : 3. solve world hunger. : 4. contain vast tracts of Jesus Monroy Jr's [ye groupe foole] : code. [hahahhahahhaha] : : : : now, some people who did a lot of work on 386bsd came along, : and decided that : : 1. 0.2 was never going to come out : 2. 386bsd kinda sucked. : 3. too much of bsd's platform independance had been : removed. : : thus, they started NetBSD 0.8, with the intent of removing : the 386 from 386bsd. ports to the amiga, mac, and sparc : quickly followed, all the while work on the 386 continued. : : the code tree was massively reorg'd, and work to make it easier to : port followed. 0.9 soon after came out [i386]. : : now, there wer e a bunch of people who were still holding out on 0.2, : but slowly started to realize that it had about as great a chance : as showing up sometime soon as bob dole did of convincing the world : that he really does believe in gay rights. : : these people were tempted to join up with the netbsd camp, and : start the mother of all free operating systems. [most being : largely of the opinion that linux was pooopoo for what they : wanted]. : : however, oweing to -phenomenal- tact, diplomacy, and general : conversation skills above and beyond that of a dandelion [barely], : what ended up ensuing was a series of donnybrooks that would do Orca : [oops Oprah] proud. : : thus, the netbsd people decided to do what they were doing, and the : old 386bsd people decide to continue working on the 386bsd : code base, but instead rename it to freebsd, since 386bsd was all but : dead. : : freebsd 1.0 [after about 50 beta, alpha, gnu, pie, epsilon, and : gamma releases], finally came out, and proved to be a stable upgrade to : 386bsd 0.1. the goal of freebsd was not concentrate on getting the : multi-platform stuff working as much as getting the i386 stuff : working[well]. : : NetBSD 0.9 came up with a dfferent executable format that was : more similar to BSDI's QMAGIC, than 386bsd's OMAGIC [god, i hope : i got the letters right ;-)], while FreeBSD continued to use : the same format as 386bsd, since it worked just fine. : : thus, 386bsd and freebsd 1.0 binaries would run under netbsd 0.9, : as would many [all?] bsdi bsd/386 1.0 binaries. however, : netbsd and bsdi binaries would not run under freebsd 1.0. i believe : that freebsd can now run the qmagic binaries from bsdi and netbsd, : although i will not accept to being quoted on that one. : : both netbsd 0.9 and freebsd 1.0 are pretty old in that the code base : both os's were based on has changed much since, in compeltely : different directions [ie, they were once pretty similar, but : this similarity grows less on a regular basis]. to get the : most up to date code trees, you want to look at the netbsd-current : and freebsd-current trees. these both have shared libraires, : fixes this and that, etc..... freebsd has a newer serial : and western digital disk driver, while netbsd continues to be plagued : by a broken serial driver and a buggy wd driver. the netbsd/amiga : sparc, and mac trees continue to evolve at a pleasant rate. : : both now require different xfree86/motif/moo trees, since : they differ a lot oat the system level. most freebsd ported : apps compile sans trouble under netbsd, and vice versa [ie, : in user land, the differences aren't quite as severe...] : : : : thus, to sum it up: : : 386bsd is the common ancestor. netbsd and freebsd are diverging : code trees that both do pretty much the same thing. [run : unix :-)]. both will likely upgrade to BSD 4.4-lite at the easrliest : opportunity. : : : which one should you use for you intel computer? : : Not 386bsd 0.1. anything else is pure religion. : : : if you've downloaded one, you might as well stick with it. : : : : : toodlepip! : marc 'em. : : -- : ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- : Marc Wandschneider Seattle, WA : Barney the Dinosaur sings! You faint... Barney sings! Barney sings! --More-- : You Die... --More-- -- -- frank@martha.utk.edu | The only Word is Silence. frank@ifan.knox.tn.us | (aleister crowley, the book of lies, 5)