[geeks] A Real OS? (was: Re: my capitalization.. etc.)

[Eric Dittman]

> >>> And do you really think that having more vendors supply drivers
> >>> for their hardware would be bad for *BSD?
> >>
> >> yes.
> >
> > So the fewer users for *BSD the better, then, is what
> > you are saying.
> 
> that is what i am saying. for the third time.

But you are saying having a lesser amount of supported
hardware is a good thing, and less supported hardware
means fewer users.

> >> i wouldnt know anything about solaris x86. well, actually, i ran it on
> >> my vaio for a little while. i wrote a driver for my pcmcia ethernet
> >> card. that sucked, and i decided openbsd would be better.
> >
> > So you prefer writing your own drivers for OpenBSD instead of
> > Solaris x86.
> 
> i've never had to write a driver for openbsd. when i buy hardware, i 
> literally go and check the openbsd HCL and make sure what im buying is 
> on it. i think thats responsible usership. im glad they dont support 
> everything because i know the stuff they do support is stable and works 
> well.

That goes for any operating system.

> >> until there are so many drivers and so many authors and the hcl is so
> >> long the project becomes unmanageable and begins to lose overall
> >> quality. much like linux around, say, 2.2.
> >
> > Only if you don't have a solid kernel with a well-documented
> > and enforced set of standards for drivers.
> 
> i never had a solid well documented kernel when i was running linux. i 
> ran it for a few years, but the mysterious reboots in the middle of the 
> night, huge kernels (>6mb once!), poor support for my platform (mac 
> ppc), inane user community (try #linux on dalnet some day when you need 
> help), and being scorned by my unix using peers convinced me it was just 
> not for me.

I don't have a problem with reboots in the middle of the night
or poor support for my platform with Linux.  I do have poor
support for my platforms with *BSD (FDDI support for Sparc
SBUS is a good example; an even better example is only recently
was SMP supported on *BSD, and even now the support is very limited).

I don't let the scorn of what others think of my operating
system choice chose the operating system I use.
-- 
Eric Dittman
dittman at dittman.net
Check out the DEC Enthusiasts Club at http://www.dittman.net/