Re: Technical Differences of *BSD and Linux

On Fri, 24 Jan 2003, arief_mulya wrote:

> Dear all,

Evidently others opted to not pursue that option.

> 1. In what technical area of the kernel are Linux and *BSD

They differ in most technical areas. Mainly as the *BSD kernels were derived from 4.4-Lite, and Linux was derived, I believe, from Minux. The difference grew since they were developed by differing groups of people.

Within the BSDs, the main focus of each one is different. To put it in terms of sound bites, FreeBSD wants to make kick-ass servers, NetBSD wants to support lots & lots of hardware, and OpenBSD is concerned all about security. That doesn't mean that the others ignore those areas; all three are interested in security, and being servers, and they all run on more than just one platform.

There also is a lot of polination between BSDs. Things will show up in one and then get ported to another.

> 3. Is there any group of developer from each project that

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Sometimes changes will apply to all, and a comparable fix will happen to each. This usually shows up in dealing with security advisories, but happens in other places too. For the most part though, what the BSDs need is different from what Linux needs, or at least the expertise doesn't overlap.

> 4. Any chance of merging the very best part of each kernel?

No, I don't forsee merging. der Mouse pointed out the GPL issue, which is one where I think the BSD and Linux folks will just agree to disagree.

Take care,

Bill Received on Fri Jan 24 13:06:46 2003