In message <199512261747.LAA02303@darkwatch.flame.org>,
	"Michael Graff" writes:
>I've heard from so many people who run FreeBSD that they expect their
>OS to win the ``great war'' of free Unixes eventually.  They expect
>Linux to fall to peices since as soon as anyone wants to do something
>real with it they have to collect 100 little patches to make it what
>FreeBSD is now.

Linux isn't *that* bad.  It's main problem is that many of the people
involved with it's core kernel and user-land are absolute morons.
I doubt many of the people that diss on Linux have actually tried to
use it for anything important-- it does ok, if you stay away from it's problem 
spots.  (Of course, NetBSD's ``problem spots'' are more likely to toast you 
then Linux's.)

I strongly doubt FreeBSD will ``win the war''.  Linux already has.  If
FreeBSD wants to compete with Linux, let them.  That's nothing NetBSD
has to worry about, really.

>They think that NetBSD is a toy -- supporting outdated arches and only
>half supporting the main one:  i386.  They have good reason -- look at
>our terriable fpu emulation, the lack of good sound drivers (no stereo
>drivers?  Terriable output on my sb16?) and a definite lack of support
>for what most people consider crappy hardware.

Funny, the attitude that I've seen expressed by NetBSD-core over the years
*is* that NetBSD is a toy.  NetBSD's problem is that some people on core
don't seem to *want* it to succeed, especially on the i386.

NetBSD *can* succeed if it becomes a *stable*, *complete*, and *professional*
alternative to commercial vendors.  That's distinctly different from the
approach taken by Linux and FreeBSD.

>If more people don't start using NetBSD soon, I fear they will be
>correct in their assessment.  This is why I am trying to get a better
>installation method for i386, (which should work for others as
>well...) startup scripts for everyone who wants them, and am working
>with a few others to get package installation tools that don't suck.
>And lkm's for major components.  Can't forget those.

Yes, LKM components are a very, very good thing.

-- 
Jason Downs
downsj@teeny.org  --> teeny.org: Free Software for a Free Internet <--
http://www.teeny.org/