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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.uoknor.edu!news.nodak.edu!plains.nodak.edu!not-for-mail From: ortmann@plains.nodak.edu (Daniel Ortmann) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.setup Subject: Re: Linux or BSD? Date: 12 Apr 1996 11:35:22 -0500 Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computing Network (NDHECN) Lines: 38 Message-ID: <4km0oa$r0i@plains.nodak.edu> References: <4jprsf$lo9@classic.eng.octel.com> <4kcofg$55p@onramp.arc.nasa.gov> <4kkhjp$dfr@taco.cc.ncsu.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: plains.nodak.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:2986 comp.os.linux.development.system:21318 comp.os.linux.setup:50453 In article <4kkhjp$dfr@taco.cc.ncsu.edu>, Kevin P. Neal <kpneal@eos.ncsu.edu> wrote: >Tom (lwilliam@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov) wrote: >: Linux is >: POSIX compliant and does one or two things different than BSD. All Linux > >Can somebody please verify this? I mean, NetBSD says it is _almost_ >POSIX, with a few differences because of POSIX brain damage. Did >Linux put in that brain damage? > >What does Linux *lack* as far as POSIX stuff? About a year ago I read an article in a major magazine (sorry, don't recall where) that commented that, of all the companies trying to make their unix's "POSIX Compliant", Linux, essentially the product of one person, is the very *first* one to do it. That is a credible and commendable achievement. However there is more to the issue. What is a "standard"? And how/why does it get agreed on? And how long does that take? Any operating system that attempts to break new ground is generally going to break new ground. That generally means breaking from standards. IMO standards should be only lightly applied to fast developing platforms because the next generation of OS's is going to be "standard"ized. A standard has lots of value, but it tends to be backward looking instead of forward looking. It is consensus oriented instead of leadership oriented. (M. Thatcher said, "Consensus negates leadership.") Standards are also always *late*. :-) -- Daniel