Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 14:12:52 +0000 (GMT) From: Terry Lambert <tlambert@primenet.com> To: wes@softweyr.com (Wes Peters) Cc: brett@lariat.org, advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Netscape browser Message-ID: <199903201412.HAA06344@usr01.primenet.com> In-Reply-To: <36F2A8C8.FC32C967@softweyr.com> from "Wes Peters" at Mar 19, 99 12:43:04 pm
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> > The maximum ROI would come if the developer could use BSD-licensed code > > verbatim in his or her app and target both FreeBSD and Linux via the > > emulator. > > Use BSD-licensed code in his or her app? We're talking about applications > here, not operating system kernels! How many APPLICATIONS do you know of > that incorporate part of the operating system into them? I think that a FreeBSD emulator that was maintained for the top 5 Linux distributions (for example) would tend to stabilize Linux considerably, from the point of view of a developer. This stability alone would be worthwhile; given the FreeBSD ABI and libraries, FreeBSD is the natural platform to develop code on. Consider that this would make the FreeBSD libraries the predominant cross-distribution Linux libraries, immediately. The problem with Linux productization, as was shown by the Cobalt CERT advisory for the WWW pages not being in a subdirectory of the users home directory, instead of the user's home directory, is that everyone has to do their own, and everyone has to dot all of the I's and cross all of the T's themselves. And it's a daunting task, fraught with the risk of mistakes like Cobalt's, however quickly it was corrected. There is also no little cachet in the fact that as Linux components are updated, component integrators are pressured by users to make Ad-Hoc changes that end up being detrimental to the stability of the system. Witness the RedHat, S.U.S.E., and Debian libc compatability issues... which then drive compiler issues, which then drive... etc.. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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