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Date: Tue, 26 Aug 1997 12:29:32 +0930
From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
To: Shawn Ramsey <shawn@luke.cpl.net>
Cc: chaos@tgci.com, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: Excite using BSDI or Linux emulation
References: <199708251917.MAA11361@train.tgci.com> <Pine.BSF.3.95.970825132739.2163A-100000@luke.cpl.net>
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In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.95.970825132739.2163A-100000@luke.cpl.net>; from Shawn Ramsey on Mon, Aug 25, 1997 at 01:29:17PM -0700
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On Mon, Aug 25, 1997 at 01:29:17PM -0700, Shawn Ramsey wrote:
>> One of my users d/l'ed the BSDI version of Excite.  Do I need to do
>> anything special to use the BSDI version of Excite on fbsd 2.2.2-R?
>> Should I use Linux emulation instead?  Any pros or cons for bsdi vs
>> linux?
>>
>> I know how to enable Linux emulation, but a (very) quick look
>> at the docs didn't turn up anything on bsdi emulation.  Do I need to
>> build a new kernel for bsdi?
>
> Nothing special needs to be done for BSDI emulation, and all the BSD's are
> somewhat compatible with each other. I know BSDI can run at least some
> FreeBSD binaries, and FreeBSD can run NetBSD binaries, and probably
> OpenBSD as well.

Unfortunately, this is no longer completely true.  Version 3.0 of
BSD/OS apparently uses ELF binaries, which FreeBSD doesn't understand
(yet).  On the other hand, there is almost perfect compatibility with
BSD/OS a.out binaries (the old standard, and the one that most
software is probably still produced in).

Greg