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From: michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.unix.advocacy,comp.unix.misc
Subject: Re: Linux vs FreeBSD
Date: 03 Dec 1995 23:40:35 GMT
Organization: HeadCandy Associates... Sweets for the lobes.
Lines: 62
Message-ID: <MICHAELV.95Dec3154035@MindBender.HeadCandy.com>
References: <489kuu$rbo@pelican.cs.ucla.edu> <49o2n2$t4e@daffy.anetsrvcs.uwrf.edu>
<49osrd$ptg@times.tfs.com> <49pb5g$di8@agate.berkeley.edu>
<49qbgp$etc@zuul.nmti.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mindbender.seanet.com
In-reply-to: peter@nmti.com's message of 2 Dec 1995 20:04:41 GMT
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.advocacy:29023 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:9713 comp.unix.advocacy:11662 comp.unix.misc:19785
In article <49qbgp$etc@zuul.nmti.com> peter@nmti.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
In article <49pb5g$di8@agate.berkeley.edu>,
Nick Kralevich <nickkral@parker.EECS.Berkeley.EDU> wrote:
> It seems that some of the NetBSD people rejected a person named Theo
> De Raadt from the core development team, and that person went out and
> created another distribution called OpenBSD (http://www.openbsd.org/).
> So I agree with the person who called BSD a "Developer's Guild".
> It just doesn't seem that open to me when the developers of an
> operating system kick someone out of the development environment.
NetBSD != FreeBSD
Thanks for that entirely unhelpful statement, Peter. I'm not sure
what that has to do with this discussion. FreeBSD also has a core
team.
Theo was a core member of the NetBSD team. This means he was one of
four people who could make policy decisions about the future of
NetBSD, was a spokesman for NetBSD proper, and could make sweeping
changes to the entire NetBSD source tree without restraint. He was
one of four people who had complete control over NetBSD. The other
three decided that he didn't represent NetBSD in the light they wanted
it represented him and removed him from this position.
They did not remove his access to read daily source changes, since any
person in the world can do this. An adequate analogy is having a
person on the board of a corporation removed by other members of the
board. There needs to be *someone* who gives NetBSD (and FreeBSD)
direction. That is the core group. Consider it a multi-person
equivalent to Linus in the Linux world. Theo was removed from this
group. He was still able to submit any sources changes to someone
with check-in privs if he desired, but he declined to do so. How was
he kicked out of the development environment?
On the other hand, Theo was able to take the entire NetBSD source tree
and start his own BSD for two reasons. 1) The entire source tree,
with complete development source, was available to all who would want
it, including Theo. 2) The BSD copyright precludes anyone from
denying the use of these sources for any reason, as long as copyrights
are kept intact on the files. Now, how is this an exclusive
Developers Guild?
> As for the "openness" of FreeBSD development, I refer you (again) to the
> following threads from comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:
[SNIP]
> Summary: You have to be a member of the BSD core team to be able
> to see any real changes in the source code.
I'm not a member of the core team. I'm sitting here looking at the latest
entry in the commit logs. And the files... what was that again?
Exactly my point.
--
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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 68k, Amiga, HP300, Sun3, Sun4,
DEC PMAX (MIPS), DEC Alpha, PC532
NetBSD ports in progress: VAX, Atari 68k, others...
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