On Tue, 23 Dec 1997, Jason S. wrote:

> > Which would you develop for if you were Netscape?  I have never used 
> > MkLinux (although I may soon be getting my hands on a PowerMac 6100/AV
> > for free), so I cannot talk about which UN*X is better. But from a business
> > stand-point, developing for MkLinux over NetBSD/mac68k makes better sense.
> 
> My assumption was that all Netscape probably had to do was
> compile the linux-x86 version for PowerPC.  Netscape has made
> it _very_ clear that the linux-ppc/mklinux version is _very_
> unsupported.  There is a FreeBSD version - why don't you 
> guys politely ask Netscape to see if it would compile for
> NetBSD-m68k?

Sorry it took me so long to join this conversation....  A few months ago,
a netscape employee managed to convince his bosses to purchase a powermac
for MkLinux/linux-pmac/linuxppc/linux-du-jour development.  That person
has apparently been actively following the netscape discussions on the
linux-pmac and probably mklinux mailing lists, and there have been a
fairly sizable number of updated releases over the last month or two.
There are still a few bugs, mostly due to differences between linux-x86
and linux-ppc, but most were corrected.  It is unsupported, but they are
reading and fixing things.  Just wanted to throw that in.

I didn't get the impression that Apple backing had anything to do with
it... but rumours of a MSIE port to various unix platforms and the threat
of the linux-pmac folks asking _them_ for a port might have played a role.
:-)

I'm not sure what would be involved in getting a port of Netscape for
NetBSD-*68k, but I'd suspect it would be much more likely if... is it
XFree86 that NetBSD is moving toward?... were working on all systems in
color.  It might also help to talk to the folks on the linux-pmac mailing
list and ask for advice on bending Netscape's ear about it.  :-)


Just some thoughts,
David

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