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Xref: sserve comp.os.linux.misc:26057 comp.os.386bsd.misc:3607 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!msuinfo!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!jussieu.fr!univ-lyon1.fr!swidir.switch.ch!newsfeed.ACO.net!Austria.EU.net!EU.net!uunet!nwnexus!darykon.wa.com!darykon.darykon.wa.com!simmons From: simmons@darykon.wa.com (Gerry Simmons Jr.) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.misc Subject: Re: Nailed down to 386bsd or linux, now which one? Followup-To: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.386bsd.misc Date: 3 Oct 1994 14:24:39 GMT Organization: ISS Darykon Computer Systems Lines: 68 Message-ID: <36p477$5k@darykon.darykon.wa.com> References: <36djkn$nm8@girtab.usc.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: darykon.darykon.wa.com X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Po-Han Lin (plin@girtab.usc.edu) wrote: : Ok, I didn't know QNX costs major money. So I am considering : either 386bsd or linux. One person said I should get linux because : 386bsd is monolithic (controlled I guess), while linux is non-monolithic. : Now the question is, which os better? Better as in... : 1) least bugs, and stable IMPORTANT! : 2) more software available that runs on it : 3) faster : 4) more compliance to POSIX (I think standards are good, or am I wrong) : 5) more people using it. : 6) more support for third-party hardware (VLB, EISA, modems, etc) IMPORTANT! : 7) platform for programming. : I hope someone can seriously asnwer these questions. Note that Im not : trying to start a flame. I appropriately crossposted only to the : relevant newsgroups that discuss these two operating systems. I : don't want to waste time downloading 50 or so megabytes and find out : that the other OS is better. Has anyone actually used both systems? : -- Well, I'll just relate some of my experiences to you. I'm currently running NetBSD. HAve been since Feb '94. In Apr '94 I bought an adaptec 2842 VLB SCSI board. I also have an adaptec 1542 board. The reason I bought the 2842 was because I have 32 Meg in my system and with the ISA 1542 I could only have 16Meg or using a SCSI device crashed my system. I bought this under my own premis that if the 1542 was supported than the newer, faster VLB board of course would be supported. Here's where it started. I started perusing these groups to get any info on a 2842. First thing I'm told is that Adaptec are being butts, not letting any information go, and insisting that anyone writing such a driver needed to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement,) and no source was to be provided. Well I called Adaptec. I'm a hardware engineer and have had good dealings with Adaptec in the past. Well I did get kind of a "butt" response from a person in Tech. Support, but this isn't the first time. So I pressed him on the issue, and he suggested I talk to their Tech. Publ. Hotline or something. Well, to make a long story short, I have Tech. Ref. Manuals on the 274x and 284x as well as on the AIC-7770 RISC processor on the board. During this time I heard that someone in the Linux camp was developing the driver. Yea! The person who got me up and running on NEtBSD said it was possible we could port the driver to NetBSD. Someone else tried to convince me to run Linux. Well trying to be an open minded person, I ordered the InfoMagic Linux CD. WOW! This CD had XFree86 source and binaries, Sunsite.unc.edu and more archives, 4 distributions of Linux, GNU archives, even a preliminary version of WINE (Windows Emulator.) I thought well there must be a CD like this for NetBSD. The nearest I've found is TransAmeritech, which is still predominantly a Linux CD, but they also carry a NetBSD distribuition. Mind you I don't know what version. Well the guy working on the Linux driver posted something in the USENET about having a pre-alpha version at rev. 5 on an ftp-site. I promptly grabbed it and took a look. Now I've never coded anything for UNIX before, but have wriiten a few drivers for :-( DOS. I posted a note just 2 days ago asking for info on porting this driver to NetBSD. Some nice gentleman E-mailed me saying it was impossible since LINUX was developed under GPL, which I later deduced was the GNU Public License. He said none of this Linux person's code could be used. Now excuse me, but this seems in direct confrontation with the excuse I heard 2 months ago about how Adaptec insisted to source code be provided, where GPL insists that source code be provided. Needless to say, I'm looking at the real possibility, much as I don't want to, of switching to Linux. :-( I happen to like NetBSD a great deal. Gerry Simmons simmons@darykon.wa.com