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Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 11:09:54 -0500 (EST)
From: ADRIAN Filipi-Martin <adrian@ubergeeks.com>
Reply-To: Adrian Filipi-Martin <adrian@ubergeeks.com>
To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
cc: Alicia da Conceicao <alicia@internetpaper.com>, netbsd-advocacy@NetBSD.ORG,
        FreeBSD advocacy list <FreeBSD-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG>,
        advocacy@openbsd.org
Subject: Re: Merging Net/Free/Open-BSD together against Linux
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.981125215825.25451B-100000@lorax.ubergeeks.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.981126110134.26466A-100000@lorax.ubergeeks.com>
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On Wed, 25 Nov 1998, ADRIAN Filipi-Martin wrote:

> Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 12:37:21 +1030
> From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>
> To: Robert Evans <r.evans@ic.ac.uk>
> Cc: Alicia da Conceicao <alicia@internetpaper.com>,
>     netbsd-advocacy@NetBSD.ORG,
>     FreeBSD advocacy list <FreeBSD-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG>,
>     advocacy@openbsd.org
> Subject: Re: Merging Net/Free/Open-BSD together against Linux
> 
> On Wednesday, 25 November 1998 at 10:24:53 -0500, Todd Vierling wrote:
> > On Wed, 25 Nov 1998, Robert Evans wrote:
> >
> 
> To be fair here, the Linux distributions all use the same kernel.
> It's the kernel that would make it difficult to merge FreeBSD, NetBSD
> and OpenBSD, assuming this should be desirable.

	Sure, the kernel is defintely the hard part.  How much divergence
has there been in userland?  I run OpenBSD on a sparc and I see a few
things here and there.  I wonder how feasible it would be to have a
unified distribution with three possible kernel architectures, yet a
unified userland?  (He quickly ducks for cover.)  As long as device files,
filesystem and directory hierarchies were agreed to, it seems feasible.

	This would be one way of reducing redundant work, yet facilitating
distinct kernels.  It would also over time encourage driver developers
both to make their drivers work with the relavent kernels and to make the
driver API's converge over time.

	Adrian
--
[ adrian@ubergeeks.com -- Ubergeeks Consulting -- http://www.ubergeeks.com/ ]