*BSD News Article 43854


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From: michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Stability: FreeBSD, NetBSD, or Linux ?
Date: 06 May 1995 07:08:10 GMT
Organization: HeadCandy Associates... Sweets for the lobes.
Lines: 42
Message-ID: <MICHAELV.95May6000810@MindBender.HeadCandy.com>
References: <ortegaD7puFE.Dp2@netcom.com> <3o6gj4$e1m@agate.berkeley.edu>
	<3o84ia$fa6@newshost.lanl.gov> <3ocloc$3ct@bonnie.tcd-dresden.de>
	<3odsdp$72k@newshost.lanl.gov>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mindbender.seanet.com
In-reply-to: crs@beta.lanl.gov's message of 5 May 1995 18:56:57 GMT

In article <3odsdp$72k@newshost.lanl.gov> crs@beta.lanl.gov (Charlie Sorsby) writes:

   Thanks to all for the clarification.

   In article <3ocloc$3ct@bonnie.tcd-dresden.de>,
   J Wunsch <joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de> wrote:
   = [termcap moved from /etc to /usr/share/misc]
   = 
   = >I, too, dislike gratuitous changes.
   = >
   = >Was this one a gift of 4.4BSD-Lite?  Has anyone any idea why it was
   = >done?
   = 
   = Did'ya ever look into any version before?  That thingie lived in
   = /usr/share/misc back from day #0 of 386BSD 0.0.

   My Unix experience has been on VAXes and Suns.  I've avoided PCs as
   much as possible.  Consequently, I'm not familiar with what had
   been done in 385BSD 0.0, etc.  I just checked on SunOS4.1.3_U1 and on
   Ultrix (don't recall the version) and neither have /usr/share/misc.

Well, Ultrix is as old as the hills, so I'm not surprised about that.
But I think you're somewhat mistaken about SunOS.

Regardless, it was done for the very reason of "cleaning" up and
enhancing the functionality of the filesystem layout, not for
gratuitous purposes.  I think the primary factor driving it was to
make diskless workstations and small-disk workstations with only local
boot, small root, and swap easy to configure and set up.

On the other hand, it seems the Linux folks love to clutter up the
filesystem layout as much as possible.  Maybe it makes it look more
impressive when it's a spaghetti mess only they can figure out.

--
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  Michael L. VanLoon                                 michaelv@HeadCandy.com
       --<  Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x  >--
     NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac, Amiga, HP300, Sun3, Sun4, PC532,
                           DEC pmax (MIPS R2k/3k), DEC/AXP (Alpha)
     NetBSD ports in progress: VAX and others...
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