Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 13:28:34 +0200 (CEST) From: Konrad Heuer <kheuer@gwdu60.gwdg.de> To: Olaf Stoyke <olafs@my-Deja.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Looking for *BSD Insight... Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9908161301290.29371-100000@gwdu60.gwdg.de> In-Reply-To: <IHOFLNMACPNFCAAA@my-deja.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Mon, 16 Aug 1999, Olaf Stoyke wrote: > Hello, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG! >=20 > I've learned that there is a FreeBSD, a NetBSD and > an OpenBSD (hoping that I have not forgotten a member > of the *BSD group :). From a developer's point of > view, the following questions are quite interesting: >=20 > - What are the differences of these three versions/ > releases/distributions? As far as I know: The goal of the NetBSD project is to make the OS available on all hardware platforms capable of running a virtual memory system. The FreeBSD project concentrates on the i386 and the alpha platforms and is interested to achieve best perfomance. The OpenBSD project doesn't support as many platforms as NetBSD, but more than FreeBSD. The OpenBSD project wants to make its OS the most secure open source OS. Historically, the NetBSD was the very first one, and the FreeBSD project started a little bit later. Both use a more hierarchical development model with a fixed core team, registered system developers etc. OpenBSD spinned off from NetBSD later, and its model is more liberal and a bit like the Linux model. >=20 > - What are the differences in the system APIs? > =20 Since all three systems are based on 4.4BSD-Lite2, the last version of Berkeley UNIX, the differences shouldn't be very serious. > - Provided that I find the time to do so, is it > possible to develop device drivers for all three > ebvironments based on one source? Or are the=20 > interfaces required to build/install the driver > too different to make this approach possible? I'mt not a kernel programmer but I expect the kernel sources to be very different. > - If the differences are of practically no relevance > (only minor stuff), are there plans to unite the > three *BSDs or to (at least) build some uniform > device driver interfaces so that a driver can be > used without modifications? People say the best chances for unification are in the userland. Regards // // Konrad Heuer ____ ___ _____= __=20 // Gesellschaft f=FCr wissenschaftliche / __/______ ___ / _ )/ __= / _ \ // Datenverarbeitung mbH G=D6ttingen / _// __/ -_) -_) _ |\ \/= // / // Am Fa=DFberg, D-37077 G=D6ttingen /_/ /_/ \__/\__/____/___= /____/=20 // Deutschland (Germany) ----- The Power to Serve ----= - // http://www.freebsd.org // kheuer@gwdu60.gwdg.de // To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.05.9908161301290.29371-100000>