On Sun, 7 Aug 2005, Hubert Feyrer wrote:

> In his article about the current state of the Linux kernel[0], Geoff 
> Broadwell writes ``Linux now supports more devices on more platforms than any 
> other operating system ever (Linux passed NetBSD last year, an impressive 
> achievement)''.

I also wonder how did he define "passed".

> My question in that context is: What is that "Linux" that's supporting all 
> these devices? Is it what everyone can grab on kernel.org? Or is it just a 
> term for a set of operating system kernels that behave roughly the same on 
> all platforms they run? Or do they really all run kernels from the same 
> sources? Reminds me of my musing about portability[1] some time ago... is 
> Linux (the kernel) really there were NetBSD is today?
>
> What are your thoughts? Anyone know Linux good enough?

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO-1.html (last updated a year 
ago) is probably the best list for Linux ports. It also says:

   "Note that some items listed were probably one-time forks, little or
   not at all maintained since creation. On some of the rarer architectures,
   NetBSD may be more practical."

I also think that Debian supports the most Linux *operating systems* and 
has a list at http://www.debian.org/ports/

There are some good answers for this in the "how many hardware 
architectures supported by BSD kernels?" thread at 
http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-advocacy/2003/10/

It would be good to compare and document the above three references for an 
article.


  Jeremy C. Reed

  	  	 	 BSD News, BSD tutorials, BSD links
 	  	 	 http://www.bsdnewsletter.com/