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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!hobyah.cc.uq.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!qns3.qns.com!imci4!newsfeed.internetmci.com!uwm.edu!news.inap.net!news1!not-for-mail From: root@dyson.iquest.net (John S. Dyson) Subject: Re: FreeBSD vs Linux X-Nntp-Posting-Host: dyson.iquest.net Message-ID: <4jso8v$n5i@dyson.iquest.net> Sender: news@iquest.net (News Admin) Organization: John S. Dyson's Machine References: <4issad$h1o@nadine.teleport.com> <4jejjt$cdb@park.uvsc.edu> <315E0F1A.4E3FB53D@lucon.org> <Pine.LNX.3.91.960401105810.31921A-100000@gallup.cia-g.com> Date: Wed, 3 Apr 1996 02:37:19 GMT Lines: 27 In article <Pine.LNX.3.91.960401105810.31921A-100000@gallup.cia-g.com>, Stephen Fisher <lithium@cia-g.com> wrote: >Why not sooner? If ELF was so great then FreeBSD would be switching >_right now_. > It would be silly to switch to ELF right now. We are not going to for at least six months (prob a year) -- even though a contributor already has most of the support working. I am very very happy that our ELF capability is being improved, and is working nicely on FreeBSD-current now. We will have the support really really debugged instead of subjecting the user base to unnecessary trauma. Even if/when we go to full ELF, we will and must maintain a.out support (and probably a.out code generation included) for years. There is little to be gained from moving to ELF *right now*, but I recognize that it is a nicer binary format, and probably the direction that FreeBSD is eventually going in. IMO, ELF is a really nice binary format -- but a.out works great for us right now. Maybe in fewer words: why rush it and subject lots of users to unnecessary problems? :-). The release based upon -current most likely will have full ELF execution and development support. So if someone really wants ELF, they will be able to use it. The system will continue to be a.out based for the time being. John dyson@freebsd.org