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DragonFlyBSD Team Interviewed
lowks writes "A nice little interview from the ONLamp BSD advocacy page where we get to peer a little into the goings ons and updates as well as plans for DragonFlyBSD. Highlights include the rationale behind DragonFlyBSD and peeks into the current engine as well as goodies planned to be implemented in the future versions. DragonFlyBSD is another flavour of BSD which forked from the FreeBSD 4.x branch not too long ago. It's headed by Matt Dillon, who forged out on his own and started DragonFlyBSD due to technical differences with the FreeBSD team ."
Or I suppose it could be that I'm mildly interested in Dragonfly and I think Matt et all have a strong argument in LWKT.
Hmmm now I wonder what sort of SMP strategy is used in OS X??
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Please. There are what, 300 different Linux distros?
Guess what, different people have different goals and needs. Matt Doollon wanted to implement SMP in a different way than his (then) fellow FreeBSD developers had envisioned. NetBSD guys want to run on every platform out there. OpenBSD is about security.
Go back to your cave if you have nothing to contribute, but don't tell people what to do with their free time.
Mike Bouma
If by "technical differences with the FreeBSD core team" you mean "kicked off the team and mailing lists for hostile, inflammatory behavior," then you're right on the money.
I listened to Dillon's crap on the -current mailing list and elsewhere. 'Technical differences' were the least of the concerns in getting rid of him.
Sure, he's competent, and he's contributed some great things to FreeBSD over the years, but that doesn't mean he's not a troll.
It seems like this new DragonFLy BSD project could become very interesting. I have been wondering for a while what their exact purpose was for the split, and I think I like it. Their goal of implementing cleaner and more scalable structures sounds like a worthy one, even if it is a long tem goal.
Who knows, someday the BSD world might break up lke this:
OpenBSD is for Routers and firewalls
NetBSD is for XBox/Toaster/microwave/everything else =P
FreeBSD is for Servers
and
DragonBSD is for SSI Supercomputers or other highly scalable systems.
Since we can safely assume that the *BSD developers are running their own OS, this implies that the 5 developers are very, very productive! So all the thousands of GNU/Linux kernel hackers quite simply can't match the quality, stability and speed of what is done by the 5 (five) *BSD hackers. By the way, the *BSD hackers has to develop userland in addition to kernel work ;-)
Good News Everyone!
Turns out that *BSD is stronger than ever!
According to an Inernetnews article, Netcraft has confirmed that *BSD has "dramatically increased its market penetration over the last year."
There has been a steady increase in *BSD developers over the past decade.
There are currently 307 FreeBSD developers as of the 2004 core team election.
You can read more about FreeBSD here
If you would like to try out a BSD, you can download: FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, or DragonflyBSD
Enjoy!
Why is it that, for any BSD article, half of the responses are standard, boring, retarded "BSD is dying" posts. I think it is just a bunch of linux evangelists with massive insecurities, just wanting to ensure that linux stays at the top of the heap when it comes to open-source operating systems. Who says that all competition has to come from Microsoft? It's not like they're amazing to begin with. (For the record: I am a happy Linux user. I tried OpenBSD, and found that I didn't like it. This does not stop me from realizing that some people like it more, and that it may be better for some purposes. At the moment, I am considering giving FreeBSD a try. Generally I'm open-minded towards all operating systems. Yes. Even Windows, to a lesser degree)
It looks like BSD is gaining more market share now that ever before. There is a new company Crescent Anchor with a commercially supported BSD operating system called SilverOS which looks likes its based off of the upcoming release of DragonFly. Http://www.crescentanchor.com
From reading through the site site the operating system looks very interesting. They already have a large client base, with some very respectable companies listed. I think I'll order a copy and at least give it a try as FreeBSD 4.x is what we use at work and I've noticed the development work on 4.x has slowed down a lot in the past year . SilverOS/DragonFly might be what we start running next. We've already been looking at DragonFly for some time now and if there is a company offering commercial support I can't see a reason not to start using it now.
Good News Everyone!
Mike Smith now works for Apple, who's OS is based on BSD.
Check it out: www.lemis.com/~grog/msmr.html
and at: daemonnews, under "BSD at Apple"
He didn't like the direction that v5 was taking so he quit and starting writing BSD code for Apple.
Do we really need Yet Another *BSD? I mean isn't all that fragmention bad after all? At the end of the day we have Developers / 4 to move ahead.
:) ) is like drawing four lines to go from one point to the other.
:P
I mean the fastest way between two point is the straight line. With 4 *BSD's (yet another apostophe
Weel what the hell, BSD is dying anyway, so lets die with company.
I think that you even can assume that at least two of those five developers are running more than their own BSD, and maybe even a Linux distribution on the side.
It's 11pm, do you know what your deamons are up to?
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 in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin 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 *BSD at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.
Fact: *BSD is dying
if he wanted a different SMB, then implement a patch or a series of patches to the 4.x tree then?
To: Secretary of State Colin Powell
March 10, 2003
Dear Mr. Secretary:
I am joining my colleague AmigaOS in submitting my resignation from the list of living operating systems (effective immediately) because I cannot in good conscience compete with Linux.
I have failed:
--To support SMP
--To generate media attention
--To spawn a professionally managed distribution
--To innovate
--To be relevant.
Throughout the globe *BSD is becoming associated with in-fighting and sloppy coding. My disregard for views of other operating systems, borne out by my neglect of technical competence, is giving birth to an anti-BSD century.
I joined the operating system world because I love technology. Respectfully, Mr. Secretary, I am now bringing this calling to a close, with a heavy heart but for the same reason that I embraced it.
Sincerely,
*BSD
Dead Operating System