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FreeBSD 4.6 Release Delayed

Dan writes "Bruce A. Mah from the FreeBSD Release Engineering team announced that due to some late-breaking issues, 4.6 will be released about a week later than originally planned."

223 comments

  1. Sheesh! by Lethyos · · Score: 4, Funny

    Haven't you editors heard yet? BSD is dying! Get with the program and post another Linux 2.5 patch level increment announcement. Thank you!

    --
    Why bother.
    1. Re:Sheesh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Haven't you heard yet? Hotmail users wouldn't know Unix if it bit them in the ass!

    2. Re:Sheesh! by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 1

      > Haven't you editors heard yet? BSD is dying!

      Since we're playing Saturday morning troll:

      Doctor McCoy logs off a FreeBSD machine...
      "he's dead Jim"

      Scotty logs onto a Linux box...
      "Captain! She's gonna blow!"

    3. Re:Sheesh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Captain! She's gonna blow!"

      Man, if I only had a dollar for every time I heard that from my SO...

    4. Re:Sheesh! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it should be dying, there are beter things out there.

    5. Re:Sheesh! by essdodson · · Score: 1

      Your wish has been granted. Not that I ever doubted that we'd be able to go on not knowing about the latest patchlevel for the Linux kernel.

      Thank you slashdot, its truly news to me that the Linux kernel has made it to another patch level... sigh ...

      --
      scott
  2. And we care because? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Im note sure that I could live for that extra week without my lovely BSD... actually I can. NEXT!!

  3. Only a week by saphena · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Wouldn't it be nice if all software releases were *only* a week late?

    1. Re:Only a week by archen · · Score: 1

      That sort of depends on how you take how far they pushed back 5.0

    2. Re:Only a week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      then we would all be playing neverwinter nights!!!

  4. Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)BSD by totallygeek · · Score: 2
    Just wondering -- with so many companies now getting behind Linux (maybe just because of the cute logo), what companies are building solutions with *BSD code? This is not a slam, as I use OpenBSD on my Sun boxes, but seriously, I would like to know if IBM, Compaq, Sun, etc., have any BSD solutions.

  5. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by jquirke · · Score: 2

    A lot of companies prefer *BSD to avoid a lot of complications of the GPL.

  6. Not too bad by jquirke · · Score: 2, Insightful

    He summed it up well.

    Good to see how the quality of the release takes precedence over any deadlines. That's the way it should be. I'd rather have FreeBSD 4.6 a month late than have a buggy one now.

    1. Re:Not too bad by vchoy · · Score: 2, Funny
      He summed it up well.
      Good to see how the quality of the release takes precedence over any deadlines. That's the way it should be. I'd rather have FreeBSD 4.6 a month late than have a buggy one now.

      Code release: Free BSD: 7 days delay - Secure + very rare security patches
      MS: 7 months late (only binaries) and then... urmm...SP1 +reboot+SP2+reboot +SP2a...oh stuff it...http://www.windowsupdate.com
      BSD wins

      Marketing: Free BSD: 4.6 + /. MS: 2000/XP + $Marketing$
      Afterall 2000 is 434.78260869565217391304347826087 times better than 4.6
      My calculator refuses to give me a comparision for XP/4.6 ....always displays '0'.
      You be the Judge of this one...

    2. Re:Not too bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I'd rather have FreeBSD 4.6 a month late than have a buggy one now.

      Too bad you are probably going to get both.

    3. Re:Not too bad by SteelX · · Score: 2

      I'm not sure if we can all say the same thing about Mozilla. :-)

  7. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by suwain_2 · · Score: 1
    Isn't OS X based on *BSD? (FreeBSD, I think.)

    Granted, not all OS X users are hardcore UNIX hackers, but I think having Apple pushing a *BSD derivative is a great way to stir up some more interest in it.

    --
    ________________________________________________
    suwain_2 :: quality slashdot p
  8. A Good Thing by grokBoy · · Score: 3, Insightful
    If only major software vendors delayed code to iron out the bugs, rather than shipping it on a date set twelve months ago regardless of the bug count.

    I'm sure that having a stable DHCP installation is going to be important to all the cable modem users out there running FreeBSD, so this is clearly A Good Thing.

    1. Re:A Good Thing by Graspee_Leemoor · · Score: 2

      "If only major software vendors delayed code to iron out the bugs, "

      And if only major hardware vendors delayed iron to code out the bugs....

      graspee

    2. Re:A Good Thing by zaffir · · Score: 1

      DHCP problems? Never had them. Maybe i'm just lucky?

      --
      "Upon attaching the waterblock to my penis, I began to notice that I know nothing about computers." -- JRockway
    3. Re:A Good Thing by sirinek · · Score: 1

      Thats great and all but will someone wake me up when I can use cardbus network cards on my laptop with ANY of the bsds, straight out of the box (meaning not having to build my own kernel to support it)

      I could not do this as of a month or two ago.

      siri

    4. Re:A Good Thing by grokBoy · · Score: 1

      no, but you might have if they hadn't delayed the release to test the new DHCP installation :-)

    5. Re:A Good Thing by pboulang · · Score: 1

      Wow, your life must be a living hell... having to type in the 2 or three commands required to build a new kernel. Or is it that you are having trouble with vi?

      --

      This comment is guaranteed*

      *not guaranteed

  9. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by loply · · Score: 2, Funny

    Uhm, there's some little company, I think its called... Apple? :)

  10. Apple by totallygeek · · Score: 2
    Apple?


    Not exactly fair to claim this as embracing a free BSD base, as OSX is not free, portable, and open-source. This is like claiming MS-DOS is based on Unix because it has files and directories.

    1. Re:Apple by PacoTaco · · Score: 1
      This is like claiming MS-DOS is based on Unix because it has files and directories.

      Yeah, it took a couple of versions before MS-DOS got directories. :)

    2. Re:Apple by JordanH · · Score: 4, Insightful
        • Apple?

        Not exactly fair to claim this as embracing a free BSD base, as OSX is not free, portable, and open-source.

      No, but Darwin, on which OSX is based, is free, portable and open-source. Oh, and it's based on a free BSD base (with a Mach microkernel).

      • This is like claiming MS-DOS is based on Unix because it has files and directories.

      More like claiming that Solaris is based on AT&T Unix, which it is.

    3. Re:Apple by Sc00ter · · Score: 2

      Darwin has lots of BSD code in it, and it's open source and portable (will work on X86). The only part that's not is Aqua.

    4. Re:Apple by Ed+Avis · · Score: 2

      How is Darwin 'based on BSD'? It is a Mach kernel with a BSD personality layered on top. By that argument Linux has a better claim to be 'BSD' than Mac OS X does.

      If the Darwin kernel is actually based off the 4.4BSD code then fair enough. But I haven't seen that it is. As far as I can tell, Apple took a microkernel, put a Unix compatibility layer on it and called it 'BSD' for marketing reasons.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    5. Re:Apple by JordanH · · Score: 4, Insightful
      • If the Darwin kernel is actually based off the 4.4BSD code then fair enough. But I haven't seen that it is.

      You might not see this if you don't actually look into it. Like, maybe start at that link I provided?

      From this discussion of the history of Darwin we read:

      Darwin also incorporates a full implementation of BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) UNIX, welded on top of the Mach kernel.
      and
      Darwin wraps a customized version of 4.4 BSD-Lite2 kernel and userspace around Mach. It includes many of the POSIX APIs, exporting them to user-space, and abstracts Darwin's file system and networking. Darwin's BSD also provides the process model, basic security policies, and threading support for Mac OS X.

      I guess seeing that much of Darwin is based on the 4.4BSD(-lite2) code, then this is "fair enough" for you.

      From what I can tell, Mach is a very bare bones kernel here, not providing a process model or networking, etc.

    6. Re:Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wait did you just defend dos in any light?

      dos is *PAINFULL*, I seriously hate when I have to work in it. otoh csh is faster than most gui's I've used.

      dos is inexcusable, it's the reason cli has a bad name.

    7. Re:Apple by Ed+Avis · · Score: 3, Troll

      The web page you refer to doesn't make it clear whether Darwin is actually based on BSD, or just an implementation of the BSD process model, filesystem, and other APIs. The GNU system is designed to follow BSD Unix - does that mean that Debian should start appearing in the BSD section of Slashdot?

      Well there is the mention of 'a customized version of 4.4 BSD-Lite2 kernel'. It's not immediately obvious how to transplant a monolithic kernel to run on top of Mach, but I guess we should take Apple's word for it that you really are running a BSD system: just one that happens to be hosted on Mach in some way. Maybe the objective test is: would a developer who is familiar with 4.4BSD, or FreeBSD or NetBSD, feel at home hacking the Darwin kernel?

      Could anyone who knows more about this stuff clarify what is happening? I am assuming that JordanH is not _the_ Jordan H. :-P.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    8. Re:Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      DOS gets worse when you look deeper than the shell. The API's are awful, and the Filesystem is an abismal cosmic joke. In Microsofts defence, when you're working to a tight schedule, sometimes you gotta go with what you can buy...

    9. Re:Apple by stripes · · Score: 2
      Well there is the mention of 'a customized version of 4.4 BSD-Lite2 kernel'. It's not immediately obvious how to transplant a monolithic kernel to run on top of Mach, but I guess we should take Apple's word for it that you really are running a BSD system

      MACH does some VM stuff, and a little IPC, but the BSD is pretty much a full one. Don't take my word for it though, or Apple's. Go bloody download Darwin and look!

    10. Re:Apple by JordanH · · Score: 1
      • Could anyone who knows more about this stuff clarify what is happening? I am assuming that JordanH is not _the_ Jordan H. :-P.

      No, I'm not _the_ Jordan H, but I am _a_ Jordan H. See my brief bio for details. Also, see this journal entry describing a time when I tried to play off my name for a joke.

    11. Re:Apple by Leimy · · Score: 1

      The web page you refer to doesn't make it clear whether Darwin is actually based on BSD, or just an implementation of the BSD process model, filesystem, and other APIs.

      Then you may be confused by what makes an OS an OS. The original ports of linux to PPC were based on MkLinux which was a microkernel as well. Are you saying that those weren't linux? Also if you are worried that not all of the code is exactly the same as another BSD out there then every platform NetBSD runs on wouldn't be able to be called "NetBSD" in respect to one another because of the extra code it takes to port from one architecture to another.

      If you think of Mach as your "hardware layer" then Mach becomes the platform you implement BSD on [like Lites].

      That may not be a perfect analogy.

    12. Re:Apple by Ed+Avis · · Score: 1

      Well SCO UnixWare (aka Caldera OpenUnix), for example, has a Linux personality to let it run many common applications. That does not qualify it as Linux. So if Darwin were simply a collection of APIs layered onto Mach, it would not count as BSD. BSD-compatible, yes, but that same claim can be made by many Unixes.

      OTOH, if Darwin actually uses BSD code (in the same way as MkLinux uses Linux code), then it's reasonable to count it as 'BSD' while not giving that title to Linux or Solaris or Cygwin.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
    13. Re:Apple by neroz · · Score: 1

      From what I remember, the license Apple used for Darwin only permits things to be contributed.. (eg. you can't fork it like you could Linux or *BSD, but you can give them code). If this is right, that is not open source/free software. You could look at it as Apple leeching free development without giving anything back.

      Hopefully I'm wrong on this....

    14. Re:Apple by be-fan · · Score: 3, Informative

      Don't be daft. Actually read about the OS-X design before talking about it! The Mach microkernel is not a full kernel in the sense that Linux is. It provides a minimum of functionality. It requires external servers to provide much of the traditional functionality of a kernel. In OS-X (as in NeXT) the external server takes the form of a monolithic BSD system server. In other words, a standard BSD monolithic kernel is altered to run as a server on top of Mach. Unlike most microkernels, OS-X puts its system server in kernel space, which eliminates many benifets of the microkernel design (ie. better protection between kernel components). In OS X, the BSD system server is based on a customized 4.4BSD-lite2 kernel with many parts (like the whole networking infrastructure) thrown in from various BSD OSs, primarly FreeBSD 3.2. In OS-X 10.2, this kernel adopts a bunch of code from FreeBSD 4.4. To satisfy your curiousity, here's the dirt from Apple itself: http://developer.apple.com/darwin/history.html. Read the WHOLE thing. I'm not going to tell your where in the page it is, because reading is good for you.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    15. Re:Apple by JordanH · · Score: 1
      • From what I remember, the license Apple used for Darwin only permits things to be contributed.. (eg. you can't fork it like you could Linux or *BSD, but you can give them code). If this is right, that is not open source/free software. You could look at it as Apple leeching free development without giving anything back.

        Hopefully I'm wrong on this....

      I think you're wrong, as I don't see the restrictions you are referring to in The Apple Public Source License, which covers Darwin. But, the language is legalese so maybe I'm missing it.

      I note that the Open Source Initiative includes The Apple Public Source License on their list of approved licenses.

    16. Re:Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So...are you saying you like OSX or hate OSX?

      Hard to tell from your post...

    17. Re:Apple by AIXadmin · · Score: 1

      Actually the latest in the Darwin CVS is not so much a microkernel anymore. According to the latest reports, the kernel is now a more FreeBSD 4.4 smooshed together with Mach for a more monolithic architecture. This was to overcome the inherent performance issues with micro-kernel design.

    18. Re:Apple by JordanH · · Score: 1
      • Actually the latest in the Darwin CVS is not so much a microkernel anymore. According to the latest reports, the kernel is now a more FreeBSD 4.4 smooshed together with Mach for a more monolithic architecture. This was to overcome the inherent performance issues with micro-kernel design.

      That's a familiar story. I recall hearing that the OSF/1 developers, which was originally based on Mach, did exactly the same kinds of things to get acceptable performance.

      The only OSF/1 system to see much use was from Digital (now Compaq, I mean HP), with their Unix for the Alpha, originally called DEC OSF/1, then Digital UNIX and then Digital Tru64 UNIX, then Compaq Tru64 UNIX and now, pant, pant, I hear that another name change is in the works under HP.

    19. Re:Apple by benedict · · Score: 2

      I think you overestimate the amount of work that's
      done in a microkernel. The BSD part of the kernel
      does much more than the Mach part. It's not a set
      of stubs on top of Mach functionality, rather it
      provides filesystems, networking, security ... aside
      from interfacing to the hardware, I don't think Mach
      does anything besides memory management and Mach IPC.

      --
      Ben "You have your mind on computers, it seems."
    20. Re:Apple by benedict · · Score: 2

      That's not correct. There is non-Aqua code in
      Mac OS X that is not part of Darwin.

      --
      Ben "You have your mind on computers, it seems."
    21. Re:Apple by neroz · · Score: 1

      Well, I just read the entire thing, and you're right :-) Maybe something good will come of darwin yet..

    22. Re:Apple by be-fan · · Score: 2

      Supposed to be hard, I didn't say which way I felt. I was just giving information. Personally, the OS X kernel design makes me cringe. Too many different, unrelated technologies (Mac, UNIX, NeXT, Mach, obj-c, c, c++, java), in the core system*, a rather dumb kernel design (removes the benefits of a microkernel by putting a single system server (instead of multiple independent ones) in kernel space, where they can stomp on each other, while still incurring the overhead of message passing. There are some nifty bits, like Quartz Extreme (hardware accelerated vector GUI, about time) and the mix of UNIX and a good GUI system, but overall I'd prefer it either on a real microkernel architecture (ala QNX), using something nicer than Mach, perhaps that C++ L4 kernel, or on a full monolithic kernel like FreeBSD.

      *> Note, I don't think the inclusion of all those technologies is bad, but its too far in the core. There's no architectural coherence to the design. Also, as for the languages, again, having them as an option is fine, but different parts of the API use different languages, which is irritating.

      --
      A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
    23. Re:Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, no one will ever read this, but as I understand it, Darwin is:

      - some Apple specific device drivers and utilities to maintain backwards compatibility with their hardware (who else in the world would want to use HFS these days?)
      - coupled to the userspace utilities of FreeBSD4.4(-lite2), as well as bits of the other two BSDs, as well as several other open source projects. The license information for OS X runs well into ten pages, due to the various licenses (BSD, GPL, LGPL, and at least 4 other open-source licenses) that have to be accounted for. Just looking at the license info, you can tell that Apple (and, of course, NeXT before them) were very careful to pick the best solution for every problem and gave credit everywhere it belongs. Of course, because the license info is ten pages of small type, it's the first thing that gets thrown away from the OS X package, so it seems like few people ever realize this fact.
      - which runs on a (heavily modified) BSD kernel, which provides almost all of the real services that we expect from a kernel: filesystems, process model, threading, device driver subsystem, etc. Apple was very careful to retain the most important exported APIs, added a few, and subtracted a few. Quite a few BSD sources will compile without modification. Those that don't usually require only minimal changes.
      - which runs on top of (an also modified) Mach 3.0 microkernel. Mach is a pure microkernel. It provides hardware abstraction, and a very 'raw' process model, the core of which is a messaging system for hardware interaction and interprocess communication. Apple (and, formerly, NeXT) has taken care to fix most of the problems that the original Mach 3.0 microkernel displayed, with no small thanks to their MkLinux and early Rhapsody projects, which helped pave the way for OS X. Almost noone has bothered to notice they've fixed the big problems. This may be because there are still better microkernel implementations out there. However, Apple's microkernel is tight, quick, and fast. Which, by the way, sort of makes me wonder why they can't seem to get their act together with the GUI on OS X w/r/t performance.
      - which runs on most hardware that implements the OpenFirmware interfaces, as well as the PC BIOS. People have Darwin running on a surprising variety of hardware.

      So, to answer your questions:
      - OS X takes the best of BSD, and blends it with specific solutions to fit Apple's needs. So, I personally believe that Darwin simply fits in as another BSD, alongside the other three. That is, it's a BSD at heart, but tailored for the specific needs of those who created it.
      - the technical details of hosting another kernel on top of Mach are complex, but well documented. Just search on Mach microkernel or MkLinux in your favorite search engine.
      - a developer that knows any of the other BSDs would require minimal effort to adapt to Darwin.

      And oh yes, THE Jordan H was (maybe still is) a paid employee of Apple Computer, Inc.

      Hope that helps to clarify...

    24. Re:Apple by frost22 · · Score: 2
      The only OSF/1 system to see much use was [...] DEC OSF/1, then Digital UNIX and then Digital Tru64 UNIX, then Compaq Tru64 UNIX and now, pant, pant, I hear that another name change is in the works under HP.


      hmmm ... like ... um ... Garbage Fill ?

      IIRC, it's supposed to be scrapped in favour of world's ugliest surviving Unix, aka HPUX.

      --
      ...and here I stand, with all my lore, poor fool, no wiser than before.
    25. Re:Apple by Omega996 · · Score: 1
      there doesn't seem to be an agreement even at apple.
      for mac os X, apple's PR stuff states :
      Darwin integrates a number of technologies, most importantly Mach 3.0, operating-system services based on 4.4BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution), high-performance networking facilities, and support for multiple integrated file systems.
      for Darwin, apple's PR stuff states:
      What is Darwin? Darwin is the core of Mac OS X. The Darwin kernel is based on FreeBSD and Mach 3.0 technologies and provides protected memory and pre-emptive multitasking.
      any darwin developer want to pipe up and set the record straight?
  11. Shoot by Greenrider · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, there goes my weekend. Leave it to Slashdot to be the bearer of bad news.

    ...oh wait...no FreeBSD? I thought they said no free LSD.

    1. Re:Shoot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      heh, you never get tired of making that same joke over and over again, do ya?

    2. Re:Shoot by cscx · · Score: 2

      ...oh wait...no FreeBSD? I thought they said no free LSD.

      You know how the saying goes... there were two good things that came out of Berkeley. =)

  12. this post is for peace by cmdr_shithead · · Score: 0

    no more war!

  13. Pfft... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And what Unix do you know? What, did you install Linux on an old computer one day and fancy yourself an expert? You probably would never have heard of Unix if it wasn't for Linus.

    1. Re:Pfft... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


      FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!!! Rapiers, pistols or handbags, gentlemen?

  14. Is this the much anticipated end by Genghis+Troll · · Score: 0

    for FreeBSD? Miss a release date here and there, and before you know it, it's just another forgotten OS in the junk heap of history. Would anybody who doesn't read this site even notice?

    1. Re:Is this the much anticipated end by Selmo · · Score: 1
      Miss a release date here and there, and before you know it, it's just another forgotten OS in the junk heap of history.

      Hmmm, you mean like Linux being a year late with the 2.4 kernel? :P

  15. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No. OS X has a direct line of descent from BSD (mostly FreeBSD, some NetBSD), and this core - Darwin - IS available freely for download.

    MSDOS has nothing to do with unix beyond a vague passing resemblence.

    Please stop talking bollocks.

  16. so, when it comes out next week by Karma+Star · · Score: 0, Troll

    will it be LateBSD?

    --
    Me email iz skyewalkerluke at microsoft's free email service.
    1. Re:so, when it comes out next week by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      shut up.

  17. Re:KDE3 debs release delayed... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At least it's been ported to Mac OS X and Darwin. (http://dot.kde.org) Just not Debian.

  18. Cripes moderators! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're on crack as usual. This is a *JOKE*. J-O-K-E. There was no need to waste your mod points on something that doesn't need to be moderated at all. Stupid jackasses.

    1. Re:Cripes moderators! by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 2

      Was rated +4 for me... Then again, I set up slashdot to +2 upvotes but only -1 downvotes.

  19. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 3, Informative

    Yes, MacOSX is based in part on BSDLite 4.4. Some libraries come from NetBSD, while most of he utilities stem from FreeBSD. BSD's contribution to MacOSX But MacOSX/Darwin is also based on Mach. Cheerfully adding to the confusion are various projects such as Fink, which aims to port a good deal of linux software to MacOSX. Occasionally, dumb flamewars will sprout up, with one side advocating FreeBSD style ports, etc., and the other advocating a more linux-like style. I guess it depends on what systems you've used before.

  20. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by jandrese · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, right off the top of my head I can think of three that havn't been mentioned: Niksun NetVCR (a really sweet piece of kit), Juniper routers, and the Cybernet NetMAX. LOTS of people with embedded solutions that require a bit more oomph than your normal embedded OS can provide use FreeBSD. From a corporate point of view, the FreeBSD has a very favorable license and a conservative release schedule that helps insure a stable OS for your embedded project. Also, it doesn't hurt that the FreeBSD source tree is in CVS, and you can maintain a branch relativly painlessly without having your proprietary changes merged back in the main branch (although some companies merge their changes anyway, look at vinum).

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
  21. Long Live BSD, shut up player haters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    For all those fools in the world, I'v found FreeBSD the best OS, compared to linux, Windowz, solaris. Installed 4.5 couple of weeks ago, an it all run fine, without any problems. It does everything that I need it to do(DVD, netscape7, openoffice, java etc.....). Java even runs faster than on the native linux platform. So all you BSD developers out there, ignore those dick's who say bsd is dying, just stick it out and do what you do best. When I start my own company in a couple of years, I will be using the BSDs for all my machines. So don't let me down. I have big visions for the future of FreeBSD as a powerfull workstation OS. I'm hoping you guys can deliever.

  22. Lack of nerds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It seems to me that what we have is a lack of nerds here. Everytime we see a FreeBSD topic, 50% of all posts are pure junk.
    Now it seems to me that we mostly have wannabe nerds here. I'd say that if you truly are a geek, you would not be afraid to install another OS. In fact it would be something you would thing was fun. "Hey another OS/version, lets check it out just for the fun of it".
    Personally I like to install all kind of OS, yes I even have tried to install M$ servers just to check them out, not that I would like to run one. Playing with all kinds of operating systems and making it run of strange hardware is fun to me.

    But maybe the people truly into *BSD might not post here at all because all the responses to their posts most likely will be met with a useless reply.
    It's not that I don't like Slashdot, but why are the view and posts so narrowminded? It seems to me that the topics that gets the most posts(besides from M$ bashing), are the ones where you can apply some kind of generic opinion and without any deep insight into the subject. But maybe this is how it always has been and it's just me who are wrong.

    1. Re:Lack of nerds? by thanjee · · Score: 2
      The thing is that all REALLY HARDCORE computer nerds are inside their boxes, putting together new hardware components, programming drivers for them, doing hardcore kernel hacking etc. They don't have time to waste on slashdot!


      Yes, it is really tiring that EVERY BSD article is flamed by the exact same stupid responses. Yes Linux does have a larger support group, and it was more user friendly at an earlier stage, but that doesn't mean it is worth less as an OS. No matter what anyone thinks of any operating system, I am going to use whatever I think works best and most efficiently for ME on my machine. Currently that is FreeBSD. If a major OS release comes out on the x86 platform, I usually give it a go. Ignorance will never help, it might only stop me from finding something I find valuable.

      --
      Saying your OS is the best because more people use it is like saying MacDonalds make the best food
    2. Re:Lack of nerds? by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      I am going to use whatever I think works best and most efficiently for ME on my machine ME is anything but best and efficient. ;)

    3. Re:Lack of nerds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, I was a longterm Linux user, started with Slackware, then DLD, various RedHat versions, some Mandrake inbetween and in the end a year of LFS. I switched to FreeBSD a month ago and I must say, FreeBSD is impressive. I really like the ports especially with the portupgrade tools, Being able to cvsup all the latest base sources and have them installed with 2 commands and mergemaster after that rocks. FreeBSD is a lot snapier than linux etc.

      But those are reasons that explain why I chose it. It doesn't imply it's the best for everyone. A lot of people I know prefere Suse just because of the features I hate. There we are again. Choices are good!

    4. Re:Lack of nerds? by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      I was joking. ME was capitalized, and often refers to Windows ME, which I claim is not efficient. I have been a Linux user for about 5 years, but I'm not a sysadmin, or I might use a *BSD. I fully support your right to choose -- as long as it's not ME! hehe

    5. Re:Lack of nerds? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wannabe Nerds On Slashdot??!?! When did that start?

  23. *BSD by totallygeek · · Score: 2
    A lot of companies prefer *BSD to avoid a lot of complications of the GPL.


    My question, again, is who?

    1. Re:*BSD by inquisitor · · Score: 1

      Hewlett-Packard, for one.

    2. Re:*BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're talking about licences, not actual OS.
      HP supports Debian.

    3. Re:*BSD by mistered · · Score: 1
      No, that's HP using the BSD *license* for an inkjet driver project, not HP "building solutions with *BSD code."

      Here's a nice list from FreeBSD. Some of those are products that can be used with FreeBSD and some are products based on FreeBSD.

      --
      Enjoy your job, make lots of money, work within the law. Choose any two.
    4. Re:*BSD by kahn · · Score: 1
      uh, lets see...

      Nokia

      Intergate, but it looks like they are going away.

      -Kahn

    5. Re:*BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget M$...

    6. Re:*BSD by r00tarded · · Score: 1

      the kind that know better then to give away trade secrets.

  24. Amazing... the duplicity of Slashdot by reddfoxx · · Score: 1

    Suppose an operating system that isn't geek-chic announced that their OS was going to be a tiny bit late. Slash-dotters would be standing on their heads to be the first person that posts a "serves 'em right" message.
    As much as I don't like M$ do you think that they delayed their OS's because they wanted to or that they didn't think they were stabel enough?

    1. Re:Amazing... the duplicity of Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      It's called "history".

      Given Microsoft's history, if it compiles they'll ship it.

      If they don't ship it, it's probably because it won't even compile. Kinda hard to ship a non-existent binary.

    2. Re:Amazing... the duplicity of Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, it's just like that whole GNU/Linux thing. Everytime there's a story about RMS and his rants about GNU/Linux, a significant number of Slashdotters start using that "GNU/Linux" thingo. And on all other stories, they'll just use "Linux". Hypocrites!

    3. Re:Amazing... the duplicity of Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Suppose an operating system that isn't geek-chic announced that their OS was going to be a tiny bit late. Slash-dotters would be standing on their heads to be the first person that posts a "serves 'em right" message. As much as I don't like M$ do you think that they delayed their OS's because they wanted to or that they didn't think they were stabel enough?
      Except when a big company like Microsoft say that a product is delayed, it's more like a 6 month wait. And if the FreeBSD team can only delay it for a week to make the product that much better, I'd say that's a hell of a lot better than receiving a brand new copy of Windows XP and on the same day downloading 32MB of updates over (in some cases) dialup.

  25. FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by Bloodwine · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ports system hard to use?!

    cd /usr/ports/type/program
    make install

    damn ... mind-bending work!

    shell choices? You have lost me there, since Linux and BSD use the same shells.

    I honestly don't see how the installation program is difficult to use. I have heard many people complain about it, but it's not hard to use at all. Of course I haven't used any recent Linux installers (last Linux I used was Slackware 7) with all the dumbed-down GUI luvin', but I still fail to see how a straightforward ANSI menu system is confusing and difficult?!

    Let's not even get into kernel compilations where FreeBSD wins hands down.

    I mean, all you have to do is edit one single text file and then type "make buildkernel" and "make installkernel" and viola! No lilo or anything like that to deal with.

    I do admit that the whole slice/partition thing baffles me a little bit, as I don't understand why someone would want multiple slices? Partitions are good enough for me when it comes to organizing a disk. Does anybody out there actually use multiple slices? If so, why (I'd honestly like to know!)

    1. Re:FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by ckd · · Score: 2
      ports system hard to use?!

      cd /usr/ports/type/program
      make install

      damn ... mind-bending work!

      Or you could just install the portupgrade port (from /usr/ports/sysutils/portupgrade), and use "portinstall program" or "portupgrade program" as appropriate. Even easier. (And, yes, "portupgrade portupgrade" works. :-)

    2. Re:FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by zaffir · · Score: 1

      I believe that as far as FreeBSD is concerned, partitions are sections of slices. So what windows calls a partition, FreeBSD would refer to as a slice.

      Don't ask me why its that way.

      --
      "Upon attaching the waterblock to my penis, I began to notice that I know nothing about computers." -- JRockway
    3. Re:FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by lambermo · · Score: 1

      > Does anybody out there actually use multiple slices? If so, why (I'd honestly like to know!)

      I use them for multi-boot FreeBSD on one disk. I also use them for fast backups before upgrading the OS on this slice. At the moment I use the other slice for -CURRENT tests.

      Hans

    4. Re:FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by slamb · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I honestly don't see how the installation program is difficult to use. I have heard many people complain about it, but it's not hard to use at all. Of course I haven't used any recent Linux installers (last Linux I used was Slackware 7) with all the dumbed-down GUI luvin', but I still fail to see how a straightforward ANSI menu system is confusing and difficult?!

      Well, don't take our word for it. Read here why Jordan Hubbard thinks it sucks - and he wrote it. (Section 2.2 describes sysinstall.) A select quote:

      dialog(3) is also extremely limited in the user-friendliness department and lacks features like the ability to put more than 2 buttons into a dialog or a Yes/No dialog which had a selectable default (e.g. No). The inability to put a "Back" button into various dialogs which could really use one or the necessity for asking only "positive" questions are outgrowths of those limitations and good examples of how an insufficiently powerful UI library can drive the utility-writer in undesirable but unavoidable directions.

      It also describes various reasons the ports system sucks, though "hard to use" isn't on my list. My major complaint with it is that the "base system" isn't packaged. With a RedHat system it is, and you can really take advantage of this. For example, when doing a security audit, boot from external media, check the GPG signatures in the package database, do a "rpm -Va", and make sure nothing extra is in suspicous places. ("rpm -qal" to get a list of what should be there, a "find" command to get what actually is.) You then know no binaries have been tampered with. With a BSD system, you pretty need to reinstall.

      There are legitimate reasons to dislike these systems. It's all about weighing the choices - some new FreeBSD 5.0 features (KSEs in particular) sound interesting enough that I might switch a system or two back to BSD when it's released.

    5. Re:FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It also describes various reasons the ports system sucks, though "hard to use" isn't on my list. My major complaint with it is that the "base system" isn't packaged.

      Indeed.
      But in reality, you can seldomly get away with a base-system from the vendor.

      (customized PHP, Apache etc.) so you'll end up using tripwire anyway, on both systems.

      But you're right - the unpackaged base-system is a pain, sometimes.
      Also note that binary-patches (rpm -Uhv...) were only recently available.
      So I am waiting for our firewall-admins to open port 5999 for me and my BSD-systems....

      cheers,
      Rainer

    6. Re:FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by Metrol · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh sure, the ports system may be easy and all. Thing is, I have found a whole new level of respect for the Linux world of RPM's here. Normally a FreeBSD user, I went and slapped Suse 7.3 on a friend's laptop machine.

      Suse's install is very sweet. Worked just like all those generic reviews out there said it would. Oh GOD, then I got the stupid notion in my head that I'd go in and update software! Nothing could have made me regret not going with FreeBSD more.

      First off, pulled down the Mozilla RPM from Suse's site. Oh sure, it installs and all. After that, Mozilla comes up with a lovely blank screen!

      The real beauty was trying to upgrade Gnome from Suse's RPM's. Can't install gnome-control without xscreensaver, which won't install without a couple of packages I've never heard of. Apparently gnome-core needs Sawfish installed... and of course Sawfish needs gnome-core. Weee!

      I'm quite certain there's some kind of funky command line switch I'm going to need to extract from the overly verbose RPM man page. On FreeBSD I never have to deal with this crap. Every port and package has pretty much worked out all the dependency issues for me. Especially critical for something like Gnome which has dependencies that read like a Mormon's family tree (no, that is not a slam on Mormons. Geeesh).

      Tell ya what though, for those folks who have been able to make use of RPM on a regular basis I have a new found respect. Anyone who can manage to get through "libobscure.so.12 not found" and still keep a system running is far smarter about this stuff than I am. This dumb FreeBSD user is humbled.

      --
      The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
    7. Re:FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by Metrol · · Score: 2

      It also describes various reasons the ports system sucks, though "hard to use" isn't on my list. My major complaint with it is that the "base system" isn't packaged. With a RedHat system it is, and you can really take advantage of this. For example, when doing a security audit, boot from external media, check the GPG signatures in the package database, do a "rpm -Va", and make sure nothing extra is in suspicous places. ("rpm -qal" to get a list of what should be there, a "find" command to get what actually is.)

      Okay, exactly what BSD have you used? The initial install of FreeBSD is ALL packages. If you never go about upgrading from what is released, you never even have to install the ports tree!

      Don't have a package? Make one! Every port can be built into a package to distribute to other machines in a binary form.

      As to doing a security audit, there's probably many better ways to do it, but the first thing that comes to mind are the portupgrade utilities, which comes with a pkgdb script. This runs through what is in the ports tree, what things depend on, and compares to what is actually installed.

      Lastly, to address your issue with the "base system" not being packaged, that too is dead wrong. There are regular binary package snapshots created of the STABLE tree. It's just one heck of a lot easier, and more up to date, to cvsup the latest tree and compile.

      You then know no binaries have been tampered with. With a BSD system, you pretty need to reinstall.

      This is either FUD or ignorance. If you're dead serious about knowing whether or not files have been tampered with you wouldn't even consider RPM as your first line of defense. You'd be scripting your own MD5 summaries, or running something like TripWire.

      --
      The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
    8. Re:FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by essdodson · · Score: 1

      Or if they'd like to install binaries :

      pkg_add -r mozilla

      or other such package. But don't go telling too many people these secrets, they might actually try to use FreeBSD at some point in the future then our jobs enlightening them will so incredibly borning.

      --
      scott
    9. Re:FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by slamb · · Score: 2
      Okay, exactly what BSD have you used?

      OpenBSD a long time ago, FreeBSD fairly recently. (Upgraded until about 4.4.)

      The initial install of FreeBSD is ALL packages. [...] Lastly, to address your issue with the "base system" not being packaged, that too is dead wrong. There are regular binary package snapshots created of the STABLE tree.

      This does not match my experience. A "pkg_info -a" would not show the base system. On RedHat, it certainly does - divided up into many different RPMs as appropriate.

      I particularly noticed that it's divided up into many different RPMs because this is important. For example, I really don't like sendmail. It's nice to completely remove it from the system with a simple "rpm -e sendmail". (As to why I don't like it, look through my older postings here.)

      Let me give another reason package management is useful. If you use the RedHat Network (or similar things), you will get an email notification whenever a security advisory applies to your system. No false alarms and you always get the notification, if the relevant stuff is an official RedHat package. (So you just need to watch anything you don't get from RedHat, and there's surprisingly little in that category.) Another of the many reasons why it is useful to have an accurate inventory of your system.

      Don't have a package? Make one! Every port can be built into a package to distribute to other machines in a binary form.

      True, I've never had a problem getting a package from a port. And I think it's not hard to make a port from plain source, either. I never said otherwise. I've done analogous things with .src.rpms on RedHat.

      This is either FUD or ignorance. If you're dead serious about knowing whether or not files have been tampered with you wouldn't even consider RPM as your first line of defense. You'd be scripting your own MD5 summaries, or running something like TripWire.

      You are very dismissive, yet give no reasons for believing these methods are superior. RPMs are signed with GPG signatures and come with MD5 signatures for each file (as well as much other metainformation). It is updated whenever you update the packages. TripWire, IIRC, just makes comparisons against arbitrary points in time, with no knowledge if the changes are authorized.

      Also, your use of the phrase "first line of defense" is completely inappropriate. Prevention is the first line of defense. Checking if your system has been compromised is not. If it is, you are doing something horribly, horribly wrong.

    10. Re:FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux IMHO by Permission+Denied · · Score: 2
      Funny thing is, you don't even need to install SuSE to go through the dependencies mess you just described. FreeBSD's Linux emulation is excellent enough that it even includes a basic Redhat 6.2 install in /usr/ports/emulators/linux_base-62 (or Redhat 7 in /usr/ports/emulators/linux_base-7) - from there, you could install RPMs as you see fit and all the stuff will go into /compat/linux.

      So really, if, for some inexplicable reason, you don't like ports and want to use RPMs with FreeBSD, you can do that :)

  26. A Story That Shouldn't Have Been Rejected by Lethyos · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    We can have all sorts of stories posted about the latest Linux kernel patch level, but when it comes to important matters of freedom... the Slashdot editors turn the other way ("Oooh! Puppies!"). Sorry for the OT, but this is for those interested in the fight to keep freedom in and censorship out of libraries...


    * 2002-06-01 13:41:19 Courts Strike Down Law For Library Filters (yro,news) (rejected) According to this story over at the NewYork Times (free registration automatically generated for you), a "federal court panel struck down a law requiring libraries to filter the Internet for material harmful to minors yesterday, saying that the technology blocks so much unobjectionable material that it would violate the First Amendment rights of library patrons." I think we all know what a great win this is, especially if you've ever had a search struck down when doing research on breast cancer or the Holocaust (such nasty topics children should never be exposed to, appearantly).

    --
    Why bother.
    1. Re:A Story That Shouldn't Have Been Rejected by trelaneopn · · Score: 1

      please moderate the parent down, a much better version of this, (which he is referring to the CIPA crap) is located here:A HREF="
      http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/02/05/31/14232 19.shtml ?tid=123"

      --
      a bit more about me http://www.advogato.org/person/trelane/ or my private page http://trelane.net
    2. Re:A Story That Shouldn't Have Been Rejected by Phroggy · · Score: 2

      Yeah, I read about that in the paper this morning (I had breakfast in Multnomah County, so it's sort of a local issue). I was quite surprised that it wasn't on Slashdot yet. Maybe I should submit it again, and see if they'll take mine?

      Looks like the New York Times is blocking your redirect there. Here's The Oregonian's article.

      --
      $x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
      $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
    3. Re:A Story That Shouldn't Have Been Rejected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh no! You will no longer be able to masturbate to porn in a public library! How can they take away our rights like this?! Those bastards!

    4. Re:A Story That Shouldn't Have Been Rejected by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well slashdot only post stories that show how evil the government is.

      In this story the government did something right, and well the techno-socialists at slashdot would not want to admit this for it would undermine their agenda.

  27. Re:*BSD is dying by di0s · · Score: 1

    Have you forgotten about Darwin? It's based on BSD. 4.4 BSD I beleive...

  28. Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 1, Offtopic



    If BSD is dying, then XP and Mac OS X, both of which are either using parts, or mostly based on the BSD technology.

    I can see Mr. Gates and Mr. Jobs quitely sobbing already.

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh will you stop with the "Windows is based on parts of BSD" crap already! That old myth is so old its not just got flies on it, the flesh has melted into a stinking pool of goo!

      The only part of any Windows system that you could legitimitly claim was part of BSD would be the network tools (ftp, ping, tracrt, finder, possibly telnet), and thats it! That doesn't make the OS "based on" BSD at all!

    2. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 1



      So what if only 1% of MS Windows XP is based on BSD code ?

      As long as there's a LINE OF BSD CODE amongst the millions of Windows XP code base, the XP will STILL be partly based on BSD.

      --
      Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    3. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, thats the point, XP the Operating System is not based on BSD! Ftp etc. are user-land tools, and I can delete them and have XP work perfectly happily just the same. No code that is shiped with any version of Windows relies on those BSD based utilities being present.

      If you're going to claim XP is based on BSD because of some user-land tools, then I'm going to claim that FreeBSD is based on HURD, because it uses GCC.

    4. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by neroz · · Score: 1

      The only thing NT/2k/XP use from BSD is the TCP/IP stack [as far as we know, anyway :-)]. It's not really "based" on it at all, not in the way that OS X is. Though, it would explain how the thing is remotely stable.. :-P

    5. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by pmsr · · Score: 1

      main()

      There's your line of code.

      /Pedro

    6. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's a myth too. There are some networking applications that have some BSD code, like ftp, but the stack is not BSD based.

    7. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      The only thing NT/2k/XP use from BSD is the TCP/IP stack [as far as we know, anyway :-)]

      No, we don't "know" that at all. Here a Microsoftie explains that a BSD-derived stack may have been used for NT 3.1 and replaced almost immediately afterwards.

      Besides the NT stack is multithreaded and has significantly better performanace than any *BSD on SMP hardware ("netcraft" tests that Linux 2.4 won).

    8. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      I agreee. Both XP and X are dying as well.

      XP is a set of patches applied to previos patches and so on up-to ancient MSDOS. Microsoft has never had experience in the good system design.

      Mac OS X is dead as well - all the history of Apple shows, that any software produced in Apple is dead. All Apple can do is expensive closed-architecture proprietary hardware.

    9. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      a Microsoftie explains

      And we all know that Microsoft never lies about anything.

    10. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But then we all know that your are the filthiest lyer EVER. You'ld even bet your mother's life for a penny, you fucking sack of shit.

      Now crawl back into your hole and learn to ARGUMENT before coming out. Otherwise I'll start to shit that filthy meatring what they call mouth of yours full of shit, dick.

    11. Re:Then XP and Mac OS X are dying too ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, you'ld know it all. Since your MR. BIG ARCHITECT.

      BWAHAHAHAHA

      Phulease, get the fuck out of here, JOKER

  29. All according to plan. by brad-x · · Score: 0

    Every FreeBSD release has been delayed by some amount of time, it's natural. The development process for this operating system doesn't rush it out the door in time for a deadline, nor does it draw clearcut lines in cases where doing so will damage its quality. This is the way development should be done in all cases, IMHO.

    --
    // -- http://www.BRAD-X.com/ -- //
  30. OpenBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is one of the many reasons why I prefer OpenBSD to FreeBSD. OpenBSD is ALWAYS due either December 1st or June 1st. Now, today would've been the official release date of OpenBSD 3.1, but it was officially released 2 weeks ago!! This is the only big project I can think of that does not delay its release. Linux 2.4 was late by a year, FreeBSD 4.5 was late by a couple of weeks, 4.6 will be late by at least one week, FreeBSD 5.0 was delayed by 14 months, etc. The thing with OpenBSD: they don't do revolutionnary released like Microsoft. Each new version contains many security and bug fuxes, new application, new hardwares code and a couple of new features (e.g: openssh, pf, pfauth). Maybe some other projects should take example, not only on OpenBSD's commitement for security, but also its commitement to respect release schedule.

    1. Re:OpenBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lol!
      What crap!
      From Theo de Raadt's own announcement of the OpenBSD 2.1 release:
      "The release was actually delayed by a small amount of time since we wanted to ship with X11R6.3 and XFree86 3.3, both of which contain a number of security fixes."
      So OpenBSD bides it times just like any other Open Source OS... not that I think this is a bad thing, but get your facts right.

    2. Re:OpenBSD by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      If I wanted OpenBSD, I would install OpenBSD. I Don't, I want FreeBSD. I want it NOW - so I have installed 4.5. I still runs fine. No problems there. Maybe, if I get round to it, I'll install 5.6 another day. What's the problem.

      Then again, Windows 95 still runs as good as it ever did (I take that back - windows95 DOES NOT run as well as it used to, it crashes even more often than it used to on my dual boot machine that runs FreeBSD without crashing at all). And Upgrading Win95 requires spending money. With FreeBSD, you get to upgrade for nothing.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    3. Re:OpenBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hrmm.. and OpenBSD 3.0 was shipped with a few bugs.. they could have waited but decided to ship.

    4. Re:OpenBSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      true, but the thing is that if they knew that there were bugs, they would wait and fix them before the release.

      People are afraid to run snapshots - that's why many bugs are found only after release, when lots of people start upgrading their systems.

  31. Re:*BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Welcome to Slashdot.

  32. This happens in industry, too by Rommel · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I used to work at VERITAS Software. They routinely delayed release dates on products if quality wasn't good enough.

    There is a problem with this, though. Customers made business plans based upon planned release dates. When those release dates slipped, the customer's plans were upset. This could leave them in awkward situations because they couldn't do certain things without features present in newer versions of the software. As a consequence, we always dreaded a slipping of the release date because it would provoke great annoyance from the customers.

    Customers want it right and on-time. If they have to pick between those two, they will select to have it right, but will not be happy about it!

    1. Re:This happens in industry, too by grokBoy · · Score: 1
      This is the difference between 'consumer' software and 'professional' software - we've come to expect x new features and x new bugs with every release of say, MS Word, and they are probably not showstoppers. Plus the vendor is probably planning a big advertising campaign so the software has to be ready.

      But on the flipside, people who need software like Veritas are using it predominately in mission-critical environments, and would probably agree that quality outweighs release timeliness. Its all very well getting it right on schedule, but if you then lose your entire storage network due to a few bugs, you'll wish it had been delayed in the first place.

      In fact, I'd hypothesize that most non-free software that ships on time is driven purely by commercialism and a desire to get to market before the competition, rather than a real desire to keep the user base happy.

    2. Re:This happens in industry, too by cuyler · · Score: 1

      In large businesses the situation is different. Veritas will release Netbackup 4.5 but that doesn't mean everyone running a backup envornment will upgrade immediately. With a couple million dollars worth of equipment and million dollar contracts you don't try something as soon as it comes out. You put it in your lab for several months and hammer it. You don't depend on another company telling you that the new version is much better even if they have a good reputation like Veritas.

      I believe that this is one of the main reasons for the easy adaptation to a Windows enviroment in large businesses. If everyone uses Office 2000 and XP comes out they test the new product for months to ensure that no difficulties are encountered. When upgrading an OS (we all use 2000, not XP) - every single application the company uses must be tested in the new environment.

      Gettign to the point now. Stability and compatibility are the two most important things in the enterprise enviroment. Release dates that vary by a couple weeks for even a couple months won't really affect large scale customers since they will have it in testing for months.

      The Canadian military is currently using Windows 95 and Office97. For the past couple years they have had Windows 2000 and Office 2000 under testing. They will eventually transition to the new system. They wouldn't however be upset it the release of Windows 2000 or Office 2000 wasa delayed by a couple months since they spend years testing software and hardware before being used.

      Release dates affect mostly home cnmsumers. The people upset that Office XP isn't out right now. The people that will buy it and install it on their main machine - if it break they rebuild from scratch.

      On another note, I think this may be a reason that a Microsoft solution is used more often than a linux solution. Microsoft has much less updates. This is bad in the respect of needing security updates, patch fixes and other such things but it is good in the fact that not much changes over time. Does anyone here have a linux system from 1995 that they use on a daily basis and haven't updated since?

      That's all for now...

  33. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by jhines · · Score: 2

    OpenBSD has good commercial support, due to the support of the hardware crypto folks.

    Of course, being security companies, they don't talk much about it.

  34. Bitter No Skills Linux Weenies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I love to see Slashdot post *BSD stories so I can see all the no talent, zero knowledge, bitter little Linux weenies crawl out from under their cold little rocks to bash something they know nothing about.

    The fact that so many little zit facers seem to have so many opportunities to re-post the same cut'n'paste trolls assures me that the best free (truly free, unlike the GPLd crap) Unix out there will continue on long after the Linux kiddies have graduated high school and found jobs at Fry's and Compusa selling Windows 2006/Dummy Edition to the soccer moms where they can while away their smoke break to talk about the good old days when L1nukz r000led!!!11 or something like that.

    I love you guys and I love Linux! Linux gives the kids a toy to play with and keeps you off the *BSD lists. I hope Slashdot stays around forever so you kids don't run around poluting the rest of the net. Slashdot is like AOL for Linux kids.

    1. Re:Bitter No Skills Linux Weenies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Don't be an asshole.

      We're not all "1337 L1NuX d00dz" any more than FreeBSD users are all bitter, reclusive fatasses who spew their sadly misplaced elitism at users of other operating systems. You just have to recognize that there're some in every crowd.

      There's nothing fucking sadder than a bunch of OS geeks sitting around complaining about how uncool those other OS geeks are. Jesus Christ, did the WAT fall apart already?

    2. Re:Bitter No Skills Linux Weenies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go pat yourself on the back about your corporate exploitation by apple or something ok fucktard.

      Or go hang out with the other losers who derived their feelings of self worth from operating systems, i'm sure the amiga and os/2 people would love to have a new generation of "$some_os forever!" wankers to wallow with.

    3. Re:Bitter No Skills Linux Weenies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      man, I tell you - this is the first time I actually saved somebody's post from slashdot!

      You said what I would say if I could express myself so well.

      They won't get it though...

  35. I have a very good solution for you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    1. Re:I have a very good solution for you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately, OpenBSD only has one user: Theo De Raadt

    2. Re:I have a very good solution for you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you an anti-OpenBSD user?

    3. Re:I have a very good solution for you. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you an anti-OpenBSD user? And let me refrase your sentence. I use OpenBSD too.

  36. good point by tps12 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Everyone, please note: BSD is not dying.

    --

    Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
  37. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not the log, it's the license, stupid.

  38. The Backbone Runs on FreeBSD by netcoyote · · Score: 1

    A lot of the backbone routers are Junipers, which are based on FreeBSD. FreeBSD powers the internet.

  39. last weeks 4.6-RC by bsDaemon · · Score: 1

    both userland and kernel PPP caused kernel panics for me as soon as i tried to pass data. I don't know why, but I had to rebuild 4.5-RELEASE. I'm glad they're fixing some issues. I'm sure that's one of them. Everything else was working great though...atleast that i noticed.

  40. Slices Vs Partitions by tonybsdmorgan · · Score: 1

    Does anybody out there actually use multiple slices? If so, why (I'd honestly like to know!)

    I use multiple (two) slices for running -Current and -Stable. N.B A normal IBM bios allows 4 partitions per disk, as I have a partition for /, /usr (obvious), /var (to set a limit on ftp uploads and mail etc.), a swap patition and a second OS. Thats Five and could not be done without slices, this goes up to eight if you run -current as well (only one swap) and more still if you want to run Linux.

  41. interesting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought the default kernel comes with the card interface installed; if so, then you'd only need to load a driver to support the model card you have. Perhaps I'm wrong.
    That having been said, if you're using a free operating system and you can't be bothered to build a custom kernel, you should probably consider using something else. It's a do it yourself kind of thing.

  42. No big deal. by espo812 · · Score: 1

    I saw this the other day - and was about to submit it. But then I figured - who cares? It's just one week. This is a BSD section thing at best - certainly not front page.

    --

    espo
  43. wtf? by lemonk · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    If you don't like BSD, why would you bother to post endless html pastes of the End Of BSD over and over as an anonymous coward. Unless you were either:

    a) a Microsoft PR cronie
    b) a disgruntled Linux user with free time
    c) someone without a clue
    d) all of the above

    I'd rather have my OS update later rather than buggy and earlier.

    Sheesh. Trolls.

    --
    You are only popular on the Internet.
  44. newbie? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're a real newbie. Are you as new to FreeBSD are you are to Slashdot??

    1. Re:newbie? by bsDaemon · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I started on 2.2.2 and i've been reading /. for a couple of years. punk-ass bitch.

    2. Re:newbie? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By you user #, you seem to be around a little longer than that. Just ignore the luser AC.

  45. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by vmunix1 · · Score: 2, Informative

    I believe the Nokia/Checkpoint platform is BSD based...

  46. OS X's kernal, and more... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you don't have the bandwidth to download Darwin and look at it, you could always get a CD version from Daemonnews, that BSD only site.

    The current version of Darwin/OS X borrows heavily from FreeBSD 3.2, the next major upgrade to OS X (this summer) will implement changes made to FreeBSD 4.4.

    Here's a great look at how Apple bolted BSD and Mach together, since you sounded curious - probably not what you would expect.

  47. does this matter without a native Java? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Blah, blah blah. BSD should delay 4.6 until the include a native Java 1.4 in my eyes. I love FreeBSD's and OpenBSD's philosophy when it comes to installing packages by default and the fact that there are very few security holes compared to linux. I really wish there was a linux distro that followed their ideaology.

    BSD distros make great server side solutions because of the great security settings that come by DEFAULT installation. But for workstation usage and my daily development, I need a native JVM.

    1. Re:does this matter without a native Java? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There IS "native" java, but it still needs the linux jdk to compile that one (which means: compile IN JAVA). It has nothing to do with "native". Besides if you need to develop with JDK, well then Java is Java isnt it.

      You're either dumb or a troll or both.

    2. Re:does this matter without a native Java? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Never heard about Apache Tomcat (or other servlet container) under any flavor of BSD in the Production Mode.

      There is a difference between experiments and a real business, isn't it?

  48. Release? by Admiral+Llama · · Score: 1

    What is this "release" you refer to? I just make buildworld whenever I feel like it.

    1. Re:Release? by alphapartic1e · · Score: 0

      You assfuck, most production users install binary builds, and releases are the most stable way to do this.

  49. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by benedict · · Score: 2, Informative

    Compaq sells hardware to Yahoo, which is a
    FreeBSD shop.

    The Nokia Firewall-1 implementation is based on
    a modified FreeBSD.

    IBM's InterJet router-toaster is based on FreeBSD.

    --
    Ben "You have your mind on computers, it seems."
  50. Hard Times for *BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    We all can agree that *BSD is a failure. Yet why dd *BSD fail? Once you get past the fact that *BSD is fragmented between a myriad of incompatible kernels, there is the historical record of failure and of failed operating systems. *BSD experienced moderate success about 15 years ago in academic circles. Since then it has been in steady decline. We all know *BSD keeps losing market share but why? Is it the problematic personalities of many of the key players? Or is it larger than their troubled personalities?

    The record is clear on one thing: no operating system has ever come back from the grave. Efforts to resuscitate *BS are one step away from spiritualists wishing to communicate with the dead. As the situation grows more desperate for the adherents of this doomed OS, the sorrow takes hold. An unremitting gloom hangs like a death shroud over a once hopeful *BSD community. The hope is gone; a mournful nostalgia has settled in. Now is the end time for *BSD.

  51. Re:tarball ar more straightforward than packa IMHO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    • It's even more simple:
    • cd /usr/src
    • wget http://www.site.org/folder/software-vX.tar.gz
    • tar -zxvf software
    • cd software-vX
    • ./configure
    • make
    • make install
    • /usr/local/bin/software --help
    Did I miss anything?
  52. Re:does this matter without a USB and FireWire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    • Why BSD is dying? It's simle:
    • I don't need USB and FireWire (or Java) on router.
    • I may need or not it on a workgroup server.
    • I certainly will not install any OS on our desktops without USB and FireWire.
    • If I have a choice to install on the workgroup server the same OS [Linux] as on our desktops - why would I mess with BSD on our workgroup servers?
    • ... same argument about Java ...
    • If our desktops and workgroup servers (and the corporate server) are Linux boxes, why would I mess with BSD on my router?

    The small chance that a Linux box has more [than BSD] from-a-vendor security holes is easily compensated by the chance that having one OS platform on all desktops, workgroup servers and routers leave more free time to find and fix such holes.

  53. Re: Backbone is not Internet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Backbone routers? Few poeple work with it. So what? Let's them use the ancient OS.

    Internet is not only backbones. It's also about web java-based web servers. Here is the area where Linux powers the internet.

  54. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by fearlessfreddy · · Score: 1

    Apple has a BSD solution. It's called OS X.

  55. Re:Myth of BSDL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    What's wrong with GPL?

    The myth of BSDL is based on a assumption that commercial users will contribute back. Let's face it: Apple has build Mac OS X based on BSD. Mac OS X supports USB and FireWire hardware. Where is USB or 1394 in any BSD?

    From the other point, BSDL does not just allow commercial usage - it forces to it. Give me any example of BSDL software developed without sponsors. And compare your list with the list of software developed under GPL.

  56. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is official; Netcraft confirms: *BSD is dying
    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last [samag.com] in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin [amdest.com] to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

    FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

  57. Lazy System Administration... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    You're counting on RPM checksums to verify your data when you should do your own independant fingerprinting of binaries (which is about 10 minutes to script). An changes in filesystem outside of variable data should be noted automatically.


    Any lack pf super high-level automation is not a disadvantage, it's traditional systems administration.

    1. Re:Lazy System Administration... by slamb · · Score: 2
      You're counting on RPM checksums to verify your data when you should do your own independant fingerprinting of binaries (which is about 10 minutes to script). An changes in filesystem outside of variable data should be noted automatically.

      And how is this database maintained? A simple script that makes checksums nightly and compares them to the current files? (As stock FreeBSD does for setuid binaries.) Then if someone is determined, (s)he could just change the checksum as well. It sounds like you are depending on security through obscurity - no one knows your checksum system is there, so no one would do that.

      In contrast, the RPM way includes a GPG signature with every package. The checksums are signed. If you make your own RPMs, you can do so on your testing system, with a private key not stored on the machine you are checking. Then you know the database is trustworthy.

      Why would your way be superior? I've shown one way it might not even be as good. Even if you've avoided that pitfall (sending the checksums somewhere else, perhaps), there's the problem of knowing if the changes are authorized or not - with a RPM, updating the package and the checksum always happens at once. With something like TripWire, you have to remember and/or tell other admins you changed this package. There are surely other pitfalls I can't think of now.

      Any lack pf super high-level automation is not a disadvantage, it's traditional systems administration.

      It is indeed traditional systems administration. However, I find it to be a disadvantage compared to RPM. Rejecting things because they are not traditional is dumb. Please explain to me why your way is better, if you can.

  58. Re:BSD? What BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    I would put the question differently:

    What BSD?

    There is Linux kernel. There is a set of GNU software. And they are the same in all Linux distributions. Linux vendors just add something they think may improve OS. But all skills I've got working with one Linux will be re-used on the other Linux on, let's say, 90%. That include kernel and core utils.

    There is FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD and that ... Darwin. Each has own different behaviour on different hardware. From a pont of skills reused, I feel like working with similar, but still different operating systems. That includes both kernel and utils.

    So, what BSD we are talking about? There is no such thing as BSD - there several different operating systems haveing same three capital letters in their names: FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. And that ... Darwin (has Darwin lost BSD abbreviation with any purpose?) All different. And all dying.

  59. USB and Firewire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does it mean that we will see USB and FireWire support in FreeBSD anytime soon?

  60. Whose looking at porn? by Lethyos · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    There are a plethora of searches that yield perfectly acceptable results (if done right) that censoring software will filter. Search google for "breast cancer" with NetNanny or some other stupid filter, and it will block everything.

    Get a clue. It's up to the people, even children, to decide what they do and do not want to look at. Parents should never bitch about kids looking at "objectional material". It's their own damn faults if they failed to instill their morals in their children.

    --
    Why bother.
    1. Re:Whose looking at porn? by Quill_28 · · Score: 1

      >Get a clue. It's up to the people, even children >what they do and do not want to look at

      The dumbest statement I have seen here in a while. The children should decide? So when they do a search on Toy Story and a bunch of porn sites pop up, they are supposed to go: Is this morally right for me to look at? Gimme me a break.

      You have no clue as to how a child's mind works with a statement like that.

    2. Re:Whose looking at porn? by chegosaurus · · Score: 1

      I am. It rocks.

    3. Re:Whose looking at porn? by Lethyos · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      The dumbest statement I have seen here in a while.

      Prove it. Perhaps you failed to properly understand it and think things through before replying.

      The children should decide?

      Absolutely. Contrary to your typical parental opinion, children have brains and they are not stupid. They know what they're doing. Just the same as you giggled with all your friends when you looked up "sex" and "penis" in your school's encyclopaedia.

      If parents took some responsibility to spend time with their children and instill their values into their children, they'd have nothing to worry about. Instead, they ship their kids off to day care and work all day. Children can be taught to look out for and stay away from harmful material. Myself and a close friend of mine, even at young ages, knew what was right and wrong.

      So when they do a search on Toy Story and a bunch of porn sites pop up, they are supposed to go: Is this morally right for me to look at?

      This looks quite innocuous to me. So does this. You're one of those who sides with these panicky, overzealous, hyper soccer moms that have a heart attack at the first sight of reality. Children aren't raised in a pure, crystalline world. There's no sense in pretending that they will never be exposed to sex, violence, or anything else you find "objectionable". It will happen. The only way to prevent this would be to lock them in a box until they're 21 years old. And after that, they'll still be children. It never helps to patronize children. That only frustrates them and defeats the natural development of their intellects. Deal with it rationally, not like a fruit with a mindless agenda that needs no pursuit. I wasn't censored from the Internet when I in my early teens, and neither was anyone else I know. Everyone's turned out fine.

      Gimme me a break.

      Go out and hang with your right winger friends. Pat each other on the back over how right you are and past "breaks" back and forth. The rest of us prefer to just live life without ridiculous and excessive regulation and other nonsense.

      --
      Why bother.
  61. Re:Myth of BSDL by Guy+Harris · · Score: 3, Informative
    Where is USB or 1394 in any BSD?

    Not that this changes the argument about commercial contributions back to the OS, but to provide a non-rhetorical answer to what I presume was a rhetorical question:

    The kernel support for USB is typically in sys/dev/usb in the source tree. (That's where it is on my FreeBSD 3.4 system; no, that's not a typo for "FreeBSD 4.3".) There may also be user-mode daemons or library routines there as well.

    Here's a FreeBSD FireWire implementation under development; the most recent tarball came out 2002-05-30. I don't know what projects, if any, exist for NetBSD or OpenBSD.

  62. Re:Myth of BSDL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The myth of BSDL is based on a assumption that commercial users will contribute back.

    No. That's what the GPL is about, about getting contributions back. Some call it blackmail, others freedom. I call it an opinion and a license.

    The BSD license basically says: here it is, do what you like with it but don't complain if you break it rather help getting it fixed.

    From the other point, BSDL does not just allow commercial usage - it forces to it.

    Err? You mean like BSD code in the linux kernel or what?

    Give me any example of BSDL software developed without sponsors.

    Almost all ports most of which are probably not GNU. Oh, you thought something like apache would be GNU? It's not, it has its own very BSDish license. And then fBSD has its own C compiler and the like. In fact the minimum install can give you a userland that has no GNU at all.

    And ince you start talking about added packages/ports, well that's not all GNU, and if it is the BSD crowd doesnt care. As long as it works it's fine with me.

  63. USB and FireWire? by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
    FreeBSD has had USB for ages.

    Don't know about FireWire, but I'd be surprised if its not there on the OS that is the basis of MacOS X. OTOH, I have no FireWire kit, and don't see any reason why I should in the forseable future.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    1. Re:USB and FireWire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      BSD supports only USB input. Nothing for USB disks. And nothing for USB scanners and printers.

      Speaking about scanners - nothing for scanners at all.

      FireWire is pretty common for Sony Digital cameras. There are good FireWire scanners. And, of course, FireWire is much better for external disks. It's a shame that there is no FireWire support in free/open/net BSD.

      As for Mac OS X: first of all it's not exactly BSD. It just use some of BSD code. But it doesn't contribute back. Otherwise we would see much better hardware support in free/open/net BSD.

    2. Re:USB and FireWire? by Icy · · Score: 1

      Here is a freebsd usb page I bookmarked a while back:
      http://www.etla.net/~n_hibma/usb/
      I don't know how current it is, but its worth a look.

    3. Re:USB and FireWire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) FreeBSD announced firewire one week before Apple unveiled USB based macs.
      2) drivers have existed for firewire on FreeBSD for versions 2.2.7.

      FreeBSD - leading the way!

    4. Re:USB and FireWire? by giantsquidmarks · · Score: 1

      I'd like to see a USB VT100 terminal. with LCD screen... all powered by the bus.

    5. Re:USB and FireWire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix99/full_papers/ kobayashi/kobayashi.pdf

    6. Re:USB and FireWire? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shut up stupid BITCH!!!!

  64. haiku by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    helicopter crash
    dead flesh stinking charred flesh
    freebsd death

  65. FreeBSD is more straightforward than Linux by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
    Its that way because BSD was there more than 10 years before DOS could boot, and decided being compatible with itself was more important than tracking Windows whimsey.

    There is also the need to operate on hardware that can't run Windows, and does not support DOS partitioning.

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  66. Re:Myth of BSDL by Guy+Harris · · Score: 2
    Give me any example of BSDL software developed without sponsors.

    Almost all ports most of which are probably not GNU.

    By "ports" do you mean "stuff in the {Free,Net,Open}BSD ports collections"? If so, have you surveyed, for example, all ~7000 FreeBSD ports to see what licenses they have, and determined that most of them are not GPLed (much less that most of them use the BSDL)?

    And then fBSD has its own C compiler

    If by "fBSD" you mean "FreeBSD", it doesn't have its own C compiler - or linker, or assembler; it uses GCC, GLD, and GAS. Take a look at /usr/src/gnu.

  67. Limerick by Sivar · · Score: 2

    The following is by !me:

    There once was a troll found on slashdot
    Whose posts made him seem like a crackpot
    Something's wrong with his head
    Screaming BSD's dead
    Thanks to Darwin it's just hit the jackpot

    --
    Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. --E. W. Dijkstra
  68. *BSD is dead, can I do the AUTOPSY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am a professor and I find the death of *BSD intriguing. Can I do the autopsy?? It was just a matter of time, I remember thinking *BSD will die as early as in 1994.

  69. I guess we can wait a week... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess we can wait a week. We've got 200 restaurants to install with FreeBSD touchscreen Point of Sale in the next 7 months. I sure hope that the touchscreen code in Xfree86 4.2 is fixed. It was working fine in Xfree86 4.1, the version used in FreeBSD 4.5 but it somehow was broken in Xfree86 4.2. Boy, it sure was a pleasure to remove all the touchscreen code from our point of sale software knowing that from now on we can rely on getting it from X Windows. Now, if they can just keep us supplied with those gorgeous Mini-ITX Via motherboards. Slap one inside the back of an LCD; it sure makes a hell of a touchscreen X server, not to mention a hell of a touchscreen application client. The more X does the smaller or app code gets...

  70. Can you prove it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I can prove that BSD has died - noone wants' to use it, noone besides few sysadmins, who should write historical article, rather than sysadmin scripts).

  71. How about actually reading Slashdot? by ubernostrum · · Score: 1

    In an article posted yesterday, it was covered.

  72. *BSD obituary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    It is with great sadness that I bring you this news: *BSD is dead.

    It was at 4:25am on the morning of April 15th 2002 that, after many failed attempts to resuscitate the dying OS, *BSD finally passed away. While *BSD has been in it's death throes for many months now and it's death has been foreseen for many years, this is still a very sad moment, a great loss for OS dilettante dabblers and *BSD lovers the world over. Though *BSD has passed away, it will surely be fondly remembered for years to come by users, developers, and trolls alike. Even if you didn't enjoy using *BSD, there's no denying it's contributions to popular OS culture. Truly a Berkeley icon. It will be missed :(

  73. Re:Myth of BSDL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "stuff in the {Free,Net,Open}BSD ports collections" is BSD licensed, the "stuff" in the tarballs most often isnt.

    "FreeBSD", it doesn't have its own C compiler
    My kernel compiles with cc not gcc. FreeBSD has a "make" and a "gmake". The base system compiles with its own compiler. For ports it depends.

  74. Re:Myth of BSDL by Guy+Harris · · Score: 2
    "stuff in the {Free,Net,Open}BSD ports collections" is BSD licensed, the "stuff" in the tarballs most often isnt.

    If by that assertion you mean that the changes to the ported applications are BSD-licensed, then, even if true, it's not a very interesting assertion - the applications in question are still GPLed.

    My kernel compiles with cc not gcc.

    On BSD, cc is gcc:

    % uname -sr
    FreeBSD 3.4-RELEASE
    % ls -li /usr/bin/cc /usr/bin/gcc
    10848 -r-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 49680 Dec 19 1999 /usr/bin/cc
    10848 -r-xr-xr-x 2 root wheel 49680 Dec 19 1999 /usr/bin/gcc

    Two names, same program.

    FreeBSD has a "make" and a "gmake".

    So? That's make, not the compiler.

    The base system compiles with its own compiler.

    Which, as noted, is the GNU C Compiler, even if the command name used to invoke it is cc, not gcc.

  75. Hmmm, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is it snappier than Gentoo Linux ;)

    Might be not; sure about that ?
    Try b o t h !

  76. Re:Myth of BSDL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You could name a binary windowsxp but that doesn't mean it really is though. gcc is used for compatibility for all the code writers that just make assumptions like you have been. If a scipt looks for a particular file and doesn't find it then it will quit. It saves us from having to edit a lot of source files just do they can compile.

  77. Re:*BSD found DEAD! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    What the hell is that moving over there in the server room? The dead isn't supposed to walk let alone serve. Help me, I'm surrounded by "dead" smp BSD boxes. They must be ZOMBIES. AHHHHHH...

    Oh wait, they are doing just fine. I guess they aren't dead after all. Must be someone who doesn't know what they are talking about when they said BSD was dead.

    Try this test out. Hammer the daylights out of a Linux box and a FreeBSD (Open/Net) box and see which one seems dead. The BSD box will continue to respond while you can't do anything with the Linux one til the traffic dies and maybe not even then. The Linux box seems to be in a coma and you will need the paddles(hard reset) to revive it.

  78. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    What's that smell? Did something die?

    Smells dead to me.

  79. Re:Myth of BSDL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    freshmeat.net can tell you about all sorts of BSDL projects. If you weren't busy on /. being a schmuck you would know that.

  80. OS X's BSD layer by Leimy · · Score: 1

    As always there is a lot of speculation and very little knowledge in these posts.

    BSD

    Above the Mach layer, the BSD layer provides "OS personality" APIs and services. The BSD layer is based on the BSD kernel, primarily FreeBSD. The BSD component provides

    file systems

    networking (except for the hardware device level)

    UNIX security model

    syscall support

    the BSD process model, including process IDs and signals
    FreeBSD kernel APIs

    many of the POSIX APIs

    Pthreads (POSIX threads implementation)

    The BSD component is described in more detail in the chapter BSD Overview".

    So there pbtpbtpbtpbt.

  81. Re:Myth of BSDL by Guy+Harris · · Score: 2
    freshmeat.net can tell you about all sorts of BSDL projects. If you weren't busy on /. being a schmuck you would know that.

    I'm quite aware that there are plenty of BSDLed projects; I'm just noting that the C compiler that comes with BSD isn't one of them.

    But if you weren't busy on Slashdot being yet another worthless stupid brainless monkey, and actually had a brain to use and bothered using it, you could have figured that out.

  82. Re:Myth of BSDL by Guy+Harris · · Score: 2
    You could name a binary windowsxp but that doesn't mean it really is though.

    Correct. Just because BSD happens to have cc as one of the names for the GNU C Compiler doesn't mean that it's some compiler other than GCC. As you will discover if you actually bother looking at the source that generates the C compiler on BSD, it is GCC.

    gcc is used for compatibility for all the code writers that just make assumptions like you have been.

    You are incorrect in your mistaken belief that I've been making some assumption that the C compiler on a system is called gcc; my makefiles use $(CC).

  83. *BSD lesson. The art of failure. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why DID *BSD fail so bad??? Why did it have to go to GRAVE? Was it the pisshead developers who later went to Apple? ..who later got some cash and laughed at those stupid *BSD (l)users? Why am I stomping the head of that daemon mascot with my army boots? Why will I beat every *bsd luser is see?

  84. *BSD Funerals!! All welcome!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I arrange *BSD funerals!! You are all welcome to this PARTY!!!

  85. Keep reading. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most of you people who read and post to Slashdot
    are so full of shit that you probably can't see
    beyond a foot in front of yourselves. You think
    that because you're the first shithead on your
    block to post "BSD is dying" that somehow, that
    makes you more special that the next random
    shithead in line.

    The truth is, not ONE of you assholes knows even
    remotely what you're talking about. You fucking
    zealots. You fucking fucking zealots.

    So go on, keep starting stupid useless
    baseless groundless "BSD is dying" threads,
    and keep ignoring the REAL progress that's
    happening day-in day-out in each of the BSD
    camps. I wish I knew you all personally so
    that I could take a knife to each of your
    throats and dig out your fucking intestines and
    feed them to my dog. Fucking assholes.

  86. Keep reading. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    [Put THIS in your Slashdot filters and smoke it]

    Most of you people who read and post to Slashdot
    are so f-u-ll of sh-t that you probably can't see
    beyond a foot in front of yourselves. You think
    that because you're the first sh-ith-ead on your
    block to post "BSD is dying" that somehow, that
    makes you more special that the next random
    sh-ithead in line.

    The truth is, not ONE of you as-sholes knows even
    remotely what you're talking about. You f-u-c-k-ing
    zealots. You f-u-c-k-ing f-u-c-k-ing zealots.

    So go on, keep starting stupid useless
    baseless groundless "BSD is dying" threads,
    and keep ignoring the REAL progress that's
    happening day-in day-out in each of the BSD
    camps. I wish I knew you all personally so
    that I could take a knife to each of your
    throats and dig out your f-u-c-king intestines and
    feed them to my dog. F-u-c-k-ing a-s-s-holes.

  87. I think all computers are cool... by gatkinso · · Score: 1

    ...regardless of who makes them or the software that makes them usable.

    An OS simply enables you to do something with the computer... it is a means - not an end.

    Obviously some OS's will be better suited for a particular task.

    Rather than waste your time flaming someone because they use a BSD variant (or waste your time by responding to such a post) go out and get yourself a girlfriend or hit the damn gym once in a while.

    I keep an open mind and followed my own advice, now I can install virtually any OS on any system, configure it correctly, and have a hottie rockin' chick that buys me "LinuxuniL" and little devil wearing sneakers kinds of shirts from ThinkGeek.

    Yeah I work in a M$ shop now programming MFC and ATL... but so what? It is amazing what 90K a year will make one do... They could wip out DOS 4.0 and I'd say "yes sir, whatever you say!"

    --
    I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
  88. Re:Major commercial support for (Free)(Open)(Net)B by alan_d_post · · Score: 1

    Wasabi Systems has made a viable capitalist business out of supporting people who are using embedded NetBSD in various devices.