Wow, hadn't realized this list was active
Alright, first off I'd like to point everyone to my essay regarding
this subject: http://bugg.strangled.net/debbsd.txt
I used to be a rabid debian user, now I'm a freebsd nut.
I am involved soley to prevent FreeBSD's kernel from forking, which
will happen if you take any of the methods that I've been hearing
discussed the most (For more information, check that link)
As for whoever made that comment about FreeBSD being a dying OS,
they obviously need to look at the facts. FreeBSD 3.4 just hit RELEASE
earlier today. FreeBSD has supported USB for awhile now, and USB is
just one example of where FreeBSD's development shines. There are
roughly 50 code changes to the development branch of freebsd (-CURRENT)
per day. That is a high amount of development
(Note, by code changes I'm referring to cvs commits, which as all of us
CVS freaks know can be big or small. For more information on how rapidly
the FreeBSD kernel is being developed, check http://www.freebsd.org/,
mailing lists, and read cvs-commiters)
My essay discusses in detail why I don't feel that Debian GNU/FreeBSD
is needed by either side. Also, the scripts that I refer to developing
to automate the updating of packages are working with better sucess then
I could have hoped for so shortly into their life. Snatch them at
http://bugg.strangled.net/scripts/ if you'd like.
Has anyone actually tried to do anything? I tried porting dpkg to FreeBSD,
to make a FreeBSD Port (http://www.freebsd.org/ports and my essay for more)
except it uses many linux/glibc-isms, including things like sys/sysinfo.h
A non-halfassed port would take some time... much more time than worthwhile.
As for porting glibc to FreeBSD, glibc already lives a full life in /compat/linux
I recently updated my /compat/linux to glibc2.1, using the same 'ol glibc
package that you would have. (Well, I used an rpm)
And as a sidenote, it is not linux emulation. Linux compatiblity mode, or
just linux compat or linux mode is a much more accurate term. It works quite
well. I use it for my X server (as SuSE doesn't release source right away
anymore), VMWare (well, my computer is too slow for it, but I did use it
to see if I could and it ran and booted windows, etc.), StarOffice, WordPerfect,
netscape, realplayer, mtv, and the list goes on.
If you can still think of many shortcomings to FreeBSD, please try to improve
them by improving FreeBSD first. We don't appreciate a fork in our OS, as
we have yet to have a free fork of FreeBSD.. but we'd understand if it arose
due to a difference in views. Unfortunately, I think we all want the same thing..
So it looks like that some of you zealots will have to "cope" with the fact
that FreeBSD doesn't have the word Debian in front of it and instead start
looking at the problem as what you truly want:
An OS that is easy for Debian users to use with the advantages of FreeBSD.
Thoughts, opinions, flames, whatever can be sent to bugg@bugg.strangled.net
and/or this mailing list. I don't think that this project is a good idea,
but should it continue anyway I will contribute time/advice/programming to
making sure that the project proceeds in the least possible damaging way
to FreeBSD has a whole.
Thank you,
Dan Papasian (bugg)
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