*BSD News Article 32978


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From: rhealey@sirius.aggregate.com (Rob Healey)
Subject: Re: 4.4-lite?
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Date: Tue, 19 Jul 1994 16:55:26 GMT
References: <2vgvc7$3tg@spruce.cic.net> <Zi2ziVX.dysonj@delphi.com> <30em65$g17@autodesk.autodesk.com> <30finf$98e@pdq.coe.montana.edu>
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In article <30finf$98e@pdq.coe.montana.edu>,
Nate Williams <nate@bsd.coe.montana.edu> wrote:
>John *is* a member of the core team, and his comments are valid. 
>Basically, even though FreeBSD does not *currently* have any non-x86
>specific directories doesn't mean it can't with sufficient time spent
>have them.
>
>I'm not going to do it, but this doesn't mean it can't be done, or
>that it's any more difficult to do on FreeBSD 2.X than in NetBSD.
>

	But that still doesn't answer why someone like myself, with 8
	months invested in to NetBSD 1.0 would want to spend time
	trying to get things to fly under FreeBSD when that same time
	could be spent building on the work I and others have already
	done on, in my case, the m68k/Amiga port? Now that I have a
	stable port and can start working on applications beyond the
	kernel why would I want to go back to square one?!
	
	Same question goes with the m68k/Mac, m68k/Sun3, m68k/da30, mips,
	sparc, ns32k, x86 and I believe vax and alpha ports? How about native
	OS emulation features?

	NetBSD has SunOS(sparc and m68k), Ultrix, HP-UX and even x86 SVR4
	emulation modes, these were non-trivial and time consuming to
	implement. They are also VERY useful for running "dusty deck" or
	commercial applications under a BSD OS.

	From my personal tests the NetBSD port appears to hit the limits of
	my hardware. i.e. if my hardware was better it would go faster so it's
	my hardware that is slowing things down, not the OS. How would
	switching to FreeBSD speed it up any?

	As far as the implication that somehow NetBSD 1.0 is tainted, and I
	doubt this implication is an accident due to it's recurrance in
	FreeBSD postings, I would like to see proof backing up this claim.

	Just because NetBSD started from a Net/2 base and replaced whole
	parts with 4.4-lite code when it became legally available is not
	reason to indirectly accuse it of possibly being tainted. Tell
	us where, if any place, it is tainted! Otherwise please stop making
	this implication in postings; thank you.

		-Rob