Dear NetBSD community,

With this post I started the work on Menhir.

Menhir is a source based distribution of 4 free
operating systems: Slackware, FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenSolaris.

Menhir will distribute the sources of:
FreeBSD Release 6.1 (base system)
Slackware 11.0 (all packages which are required for "starting with pkgsrc)
NetBSD Release 3.1 (base system)
OpenSolaris build 65 + two tar balls of closed binaries which are required.
+
pkgsrc 2007Q1

The base systems are _forever_ "frozen" . Only bug fixing and security
updates will be included in the source files. Only the pkgsrc tree is
a "moving" part for
actual and fresh userland.

I want to distribute these 4 operating systems side by side
for following reasons:

1) Collaboration:
I want to make Menhir the meeting point of the users and developers from all
the four operating systems. They should chat, develop and test together their
systems for interoperability, security, stability and so on.

With this I want to get rid of the ever ongoing of rivalry between the users and
developers of the (free) Unix-like operating systems.

2) Teaching:
I want to make Menhir a distribution for training the administration
and development
skills for all the four operating systems.
You know that people are driving heterogeneous systems at their
workplace and also in some cases at home. I also don't have to explain
to you that heterogeneous systems are more stable and secure.
With Menhir you will get the basis for building up skills for such a
multi-operating system environment.

I witness that if today someone learns about some Unix-like operating
system then it is mostly Linux. I want to change that with Menhir. I
want to bring the broad knowledge about all four operating systems to
the users.

3) Experimenting:
With Menhir you can start your own experiments (system building and
also development) without fear because the stable base systems give
you a point to where you can return if your experiments were not
successful.

With this I want to encourage users to build their systems not only
with Linux but also with FreeBSD or NetBSD or OpenSolaris using the
best combination for the appropriate "use-case".

The principles of Menhir are:
I) Strength : You, as a user, get four distributions with one medium.
You, as a user, get one united documentation for every system. You get
a really stable system as the base system will forever be constant.
II) Vigour : You get a maximum flexible system. From the kernel up to
the graphical userland you can choose every part of your system. As
the base system is constant the userland will be always developing
forward. This is dynamics to the max.
III) Security : As the base system will be constant, after training
yourself or your employees your skills never get old. As the base
system will be constant, the testing and bug fixing will make the most
possible stable system. With the overall quality management of the
constant base system the most possible secure
interaction between every operating system will be ensured.
IV) Knowledge : This is the essence for using a computer system for
maximum efficiency in private life and  and business alike. With the
concentrated, united documentation you get knowledge about all
operating systems for deployment, administration and use.
V) Freedom : Every included operating system is free. You are free to
use them as you want. You are free to build upon them as you want.

Today, I am building up the site for Menhir. Soon I will post you the address.
But in the meantime every (constructive or non-constructive) comment is welcome.

best regards
Gueven Bay