From owner-freebsd-platforms Mon Mar 17 07:45:46 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id HAA15984 for platforms-outgoing; Mon, 17 Mar 1997 07:45:46 -0800 (PST) Received: from usc.usc.unal.edu.co ([200.21.26.65]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id HAA15907 for ; Mon, 17 Mar 1997 07:45:04 -0800 (PST) Received: from unalmodem13.usc.unal.edu.co by usc.usc.unal.edu.co (AIX 4.1/UCB 5.64/4.03) id AA87372; Mon, 17 Mar 1997 10:42:58 -0500 Message-Id: <332D8F8C.3FA1@fps.biblos.unal.edu.co> Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 10:38:04 -0800 From: Pedro Giffuni X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win16; I) Mime-Version: 1.0 To: Terry Lambert Cc: jb@cimlogic.com.au, srn@flibble.psrg.cs.usyd.edu.au, freebsd-platforms@freeBSD.org Subject: Re: Some one working on a SPARC version? References: <199703162018.NAA06106@phaeton.artisoft.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-platforms@freeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Terry Lambert wrote: > > > Porting FreeBSD to other architectures is more than just using a ports > > tree and adapting the VM. > > It is? > The different kernel interfaces, the devices driver structure...I find it difficult to understand how people actually ignore the great userland changes made in FreeBSD. Diffs between FreeBSD versions are not followed instantly by NetBSD or viceversa, and it's not a secret that FreeBSD is a bit more aggresive when bringing changes in. In fact when I said we should get some code from NetBSD I was thinking of their emulation support, more than anything else. > > We must keep our stuff to retain our identity > > Why? What's so nifty about our identity? > (Yes there was a smiley there, but I don't recall a wink). No "Aristotilian mean" involved, perhaps you could call it a Zen mean; both Net and FreeBSD will always have a "BSD spirit" (I don't really know how to express it, but I guess it is in part represented by the FreeBSD icon) and you could say this brings us very near indeed. The wink was there to remember there are slight but significant differences between these systems. John Birrell seems to suggest one day all BSD currents will join and live happily together crushing Windows NT and Linux altogether. Well, we'd all like that, but it is far from happening: NetBSD doesn't want our ports tree (one more reason for OpenBSD's existance?), and they probably don't want our VM either. Add to this that we don't even unify our criteria as to where each program should go, or how the tree is distributed and it will be evident we are diverging each day. Pedro. > Regards, > Terry Lambert > terry@lambert.org > --- > Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present > or previous employers.