4 ms·

Playing armchair software architect here, I wish NetBSD and FreeBSD would join forces. The NetBSD developers could bring their portable architecture to FreeBSD

Playing armchair software architect here, I wish NetBSD and FreeBSD would join forces. The NetBSD developers could bring their portable architecture to FreeBSD's more featureful kernel and userland. What other value does NetBSD have over FreeBSD besides portability? IIUC, macOS uses NetBSD's userland though it has FreeBSD bits in its XNU kernel, so there must be benefits to NetBSD beyond its portability that I am just not aware of. :)

scythe 8y ago
The BSD organizations of today are more about researchers making an operating system for OS research as a field and less hacker idealists trying to bring a free OS to the people. Nearly all of the latter people go to Linux these days.
- ripdog 8y ago
  If researchers are working on NetBSD, wouldn't it be receiving more novel improvements? Everything in this changelog looks like stuff other OS's have done before. How is that research?
  - mrpippy 8y ago
    NetBSD rump kernels come to mind, they've been around for a few years
- nbsd4life 8y ago
  It isn't a zero sum game with a finite number of FOSS idealists. Linux's popularity grew rapidly in what were previously proprietary software users. It didn't take away that much from BSDs. Linux and other FOSS software becoming popular makes using NetBSD a lot more convenient, not less. There's a top tier FOSS browser that will accept NetBSD related patches, several really good document editors, graphical tools. We can even take some driver code from Linux itself.
kqr 8y ago
Just based on history and culture, that sounds like a really awkward combination. It's trying to merge "run on every imaginable platform at all costs" with "fuck all the platforms and let's concentrate on building a rock solid operating system for the x86 because that's the only thing people use anyway."
Koshkin 8y ago
> portable architecture Incidentally, hasn't Linux been ported (eventually) to more architectures than NetBSD has?
- Fnoord 8y ago
  Define 'Linux'. The kernel? Or a full-blown OS like Debian GNU/Linux? Official ports, or also unofficial ports? If you're going for official Debian GNU/Linux ports, then no. If you mean Fedora (say you really wanna run Fedora), then no. NetBSD isn't just a kernel; it is a full-blown, portable OS. The base system is practically the same on every port. So if you're familiar with NetBSD, the idea is that you can always run that familiar OS on another computer.
Crontab 8y ago
Speaking as some one who likes Netbsd but doesn’t care for Freebsd, I have no desire to see any kind of a merge.

scythe 8y ago

The BSD organizations of today are more about researchers making an operating system for OS research as a field and less hacker idealists trying to bring a free OS to the people. Nearly all of the latter people go to Linux these days.

ripdog 8y ago
If researchers are working on NetBSD, wouldn't it be receiving more novel improvements? Everything in this changelog looks like stuff other OS's have done before. How is that research?
- mrpippy 8y ago
  NetBSD rump kernels come to mind, they've been around for a few years
nbsd4life 8y ago
It isn't a zero sum game with a finite number of FOSS idealists. Linux's popularity grew rapidly in what were previously proprietary software users. It didn't take away that much from BSDs. Linux and other FOSS software becoming popular makes using NetBSD a lot more convenient, not less. There's a top tier FOSS browser that will accept NetBSD related patches, several really good document editors, graphical tools. We can even take some driver code from Linux itself.

kqr 8y ago

Just based on history and culture, that sounds like a really awkward combination. It's trying to merge "run on every imaginable platform at all costs" with "fuck all the platforms and let's concentrate on building a rock solid operating system for the x86 because that's the only thing people use anyway."

Koshkin 8y ago

> portable architecture Incidentally, hasn't Linux been ported (eventually) to more architectures than NetBSD has?

Fnoord 8y ago
Define 'Linux'. The kernel? Or a full-blown OS like Debian GNU/Linux? Official ports, or also unofficial ports? If you're going for official Debian GNU/Linux ports, then no. If you mean Fedora (say you really wanna run Fedora), then no. NetBSD isn't just a kernel; it is a full-blown, portable OS. The base system is practically the same on every port. So if you're familiar with NetBSD, the idea is that you can always run that familiar OS on another computer.

Crontab 8y ago

Speaking as some one who likes Netbsd but doesn’t care for Freebsd, I have no desire to see any kind of a merge.