Linux vs. BSD?

[Jon maddog Hall]

Ten years ago (way before IBM and other companies really became "interested" in
Linux), I helped Linus get an Alpha processor so he could port Linux to the
Alpha.  I did this so Linux could become 64-bit, and get all the "Intelisms"
out of it...and to sell more Alphas. :-)

I was approached by the *BSD people, and asked why I did not pay as much
attention to BSD as I did to Linux.  They gave me all the "quality" arguments,
but I told them:

	o show me five BSD user groups worldwide (Linux had hundreds)
	o show me more than one distribution of any of your code bases (Linux
	   had many
	o show me more than one magazine on *BSD (Linux had several)
	o show me five magazine articles about *BSD (Linux had lots)

and I will give BSD as much hardware as I give Linus.  I told them I was tired
of swimming upstream, trying to sell Unix in a company that was only trying
to sell WNT and VMS....and for once I wanted to "go with the marketing flow".
They never understood that.

If quality is what sells an operating system, Microsoft would still be waiting
to sell their first copy.

As far as the comment from Simon Lok about the comment he found in the Linux
source code "Does this belong here?", it reminds me of the code segment that
Ray Lanza found in BSD many years ago that said "Never remove this".  After
studying it for years and never being able to figure out what the code segment
did, he created a sandbox, removed the code, and found out that it did
absolutely nothing....that perhaps one day it had, but it was now useless,
and taking up space in the BSD kernel.  So I have no sympathy for Mr. Lok's
argument.

All of that having been said, I value all of the BSD people's contributions
(except for meaningless interviews) and one time gave Theo a personal check
for $300. so he could keep the OpenBSD project's server going as their ISP
was threatening to close them down.  "Theo", I said, "your project is too
important to be closed down for a measly $300."

Warmest regards,

maddog
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux International(R)
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org

Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association

(R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries.
(R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant
   to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus
   Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis
(R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other
   countries.