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From: michaelv@iastate.edu (Michael L. VanLoon)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: BSD vs. Linux
Date: 14 Mar 94 18:38:33 GMT
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Lines: 42
Message-ID: <michaelv.763670313@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu>
References: <1994Mar8.141900.2906@wubios.wustl.edu><ARNEJ.94Mar9134803@supernova.pvv.unit. no><1994Mar10.120646.14144@swan.pyr><DHOLLAND.94Mar10205415@husc7.harvard.edu><2lqdmn$153@pdq.coe.montana.edu> <DHOLLAND.94Mar13163925@husc7.harvard.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ponderous.cc.iastate.edu
In <DHOLLAND.94Mar13163925@husc7.harvard.edu> dholland@husc7.harvard.edu (David Holland) writes:
>nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu's message of 11 Mar 1994 18:36:07 GMT said:
> > >Don't forget that a 15 year advantage also means 15 years of
> > >accumulated cruft.
> >
> > *WRONG*
>Yes, it does. The Ultrix kernel (for example) has all sorts of cruft
>in it associated with supporting obsolete terminal hardware and stuff
>like that. Just for example. Are you going to convince me that BSD
>doesn't suffer from the same sorts of problems? Re(?)-read _The
>Mythical Man-Month_. All large systems eventually end up with lots of
>unnecessary junk.
NetBSD is *not* Ultrix. While I like Ultrix, it is still heavily
4.2BSD based with extensions to make it 4.3ish. DEC is not interested
in spending lots of man-hours making it a sleek modern Unix since it
has essentially reached its last version. Because DEC has no interest
in updating Ultrix has absolutely zero relevance to the quality of
code in NetBSD.
NetBSD has had most of the cruft gutted and has been carfully
realigned with 4.3BSD and BNR2. (The original 386BSD code was very
crufty, but NetBSD has very little of that code left.) NetBSD is
currently about half way between 4.3BSD and 4.4. As soon as 4.4BSD-
lite hits the streets, I'm sure the rest of it will be assimilated as
quickly as possible.
I do not speak for the core team of NetBSD developers. These are
merely "facts" I've picked up over time as a NetBSD consumer and
contributor. Corrections to my statements gladly accepted.
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Michael L. VanLoon Iowa State University Computation Center
michaelv@iastate.edu Project Vincent Systems Staff
Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free Unix for PC/Mac/Amiga/etc.
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