Re: "Why Debian NetBSD"
On Thu, Jan 17, 2002 at 02:35:04AM +0000, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> I've added a webpage (http://debian-bsd.sourceforge.net/why.html) with
> some reasons why I think this project is worthwhile. Does anyone have any
> objection to any of the reasons listed or have any suggestions for extra
> ones that can be added?
The main reason I'm interested:
The development process that Linux 2.4 seems to be going through. The BSDs seem
to have much saner release processes. 2.4.9 and 2.4.12 were pretty scary. I'd
like to have a more reliably stable alternative for my production systems. I
don't see the Hurd filling that role in the immediately forseeable future.
> On a related note, I've been wondering about the GNUishness of this. In
> contrast to GNU/Linux, we're quite conspicuously not using the GNU C
> library, and a few other bits and pieces that would be GNU on a Linux
> system are BSD on ours.
>
> 1) The rest of the fundamental userland is still GNU. Is this enough to
> warrant calling it GNU/NetBSD?
> 2) Were we to call it GNU/NetBSD, would this be likely to be perceived as
> insulting by the NetBSD community? On the one hand it might sound like a
> grab by the GPL movement, but on the other hand it does clearly
> acknowledge the NetBSD contribution and differentiates it further from
> "true" NetBSD
> 3) Were we to fail to call it GNU/NetBSD, would we stand any chance
> whatsoever of getting it into Debian proper?
>
> My personal preference would probably be for GNU/NetBSD, but at the same
> time I have no desire whatsoever for us to end up alienated from the
> NetBSD people who have provided such useful advice so far. Comments?
On this one, I think you'll find that you can't make everybody happy. No matter
what you do, somebody will have a problem with it. (See the archives for this
list if you don't believe me...) Personally, I still think that GNU/Linux is a
silly name, but I also don't think it's worth arguing over.
The choice is whether you offend RMS, or possibly the NetBSD community. (I'd
just about guarrantee that RMS would favour GNU/NetBSD.) It's not exactly a
certainty that you'd offend the NetBSD folks, but RMS is consistant, noisy, and
never gives up. (Not that those are bad things to be. :-) So I'd suggest that
you ask the NetBSD leaders nicely, and see how they feel about the name Debian
GNU/NetBSD. Hopefully, they won't really mind...
---Nathan
Reply to: