Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:18:44 +1100 From: Martin <martin.kelly4000@gmail.com> To: Ignatios Souvatzis <ignatios@cs.uni-bonn.de> Cc: Joost van de Griek <gyorpb@gmail.com>, misc@openbsd.org, users@dragonflybsd.org, netbsd-users@netbsd.org, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Unified BSD? Message-ID: <CALHSF8s57a0xjqQrhSqZyh0Gunhmh8kLTfcAfoVJQoDvMpiw5A@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20121113104511.GA2362@cs.uni-bonn.de> References: <CAOc%2B9seWtWaw=bx%2BKwjKXjULArijgcvbDR1gi_J%2BSQkFfsHTCA@mail.gmail.com> <AE3F3CAD-1785-4363-8266-AC11775A52DF@gmail.com> <20121113104511.GA2362@cs.uni-bonn.de>
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No offense Ignatios Souvatzis but your reference to Minix being a 7th BSD distro is like saying FreeBSD (or any of the other major BSDs) is another Linux because of its inter-compatibility for certain user-land components and various shared code. Minix has a minimal amount of NetBSD code and most of it being userland tools and package management. The actual core of Minix is totally different to NetBSD; MINIX is a microkernel and NetBSD is a monolithic kernel being a major difference. Mac OS X i can understand but again the core of OSX is based of Mach 3, FreeBSD and OPENSTEP, with a lot of modified code (more like BSD's 2nd or 3rd cousin). Although with that i suppose it depends on how you are defining what classifies as a BSD distribution. If your going of whether they have used any source from BSD then your going to be hard-pressed to classify one that isn't BSD. However, i was assuming you were going of the core of the system (i.e. how much source if any is used in kernel space). Which brings be back to what i was talking about in an earlier post. If you want to make a "unified BSD", it would be easier to create a new BSD which at the core (i.e. memory management, IPC, I/O, etc...) is based of per-say NetBSD, i only chose NetBSD because it has what i believe is cleaner code than the others, and is structured in a way that would make it "easier" to modify and move components. Sure it wouldn't be true to the roots of an actual unified BSD that is based of 4.4BSD lite and has a mesh core of OpenBSD, FreeBSD & NetBSD, but my point isn't about 4.4BSD lite or creating a "true unified BSD" down to the core (where all BSD developers work on one project). My point is about the possibility of creating a new BSD project (with separate developers) that aims for 100% compatibility with at least FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and maybe DragonflyBSD. Your suggestion i would think is possible, but only by being realistic about it. Using an already stable kernel and then modifying it where necessary to make it compatible. lol, that's just my 2-cents about it. Hell the idea is more possible with the BSDs than it is with Linux. I wouldn't even consider trying to create a unified Linux. Linux is such a jumbled mess, that i wouldn't want to go anywhere near a project trying to un-jumble it with a 10ft pole, as it would take about as long to un-jumble it as it would to finish the same idea on BSD. I like Linux but if your talking about a project/s being unified, BSD is leaps and bounds ahead of Linux. So while Linux is doing better in terms of popularity, BSD has a far greater potential for more than Linux, just because each project has made such a strong base foundation and is so well organized. :D On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 9:45 PM, Ignatios Souvatzis <ignatios@cs.uni-bonn.d= e > wrote: > On Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 10:08:08AM +0100, Joost van de Griek wrote: > > On 12 Nov 2012, at 21:37 , Robin Bj=F6rklin <robin.bjorklin@gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > Am I bat crap crazy for thinking it could be good to merge the four > largest BSD variants out there, take the best bits and pieces out of each > and create a Unified BSD? > > > > > > You'd end up creating a fifth. > > At least a sixth, IIRC. You left out MirBSD from your distribution list. > Also, you could argue that Minix, with its NetBSD compatibility, > is a seventh and MacOS-X, with its partially (Free-/Net-)BSD compatible > userland, an eighth. > > -is >
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