On Montag, 11. August 2008, b.n. wrote: > Volker Armin Hemmann ha scritto: > > On Sonntag, 10. August 2008, b.n. wrote: > >> Hi, > >> > >> I ask it here because I really don't know where to ask it. > >> > >> Is there a Linux system somewhere with a *non-GNU* userland? > > > > linux + uclibc + busybox? > > > > yes. And maybe you even get X or KDE run on it - google and tell us your > > results ;) > > > > http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/downloads/files/uclibc.txt > > Wow! To bring back the thread on a Gentoo topic, I found neat howtos on > the wiki: > http://gentoo-wiki.com/TinyGentoo > http://gentoo-wiki.com/Embedded_Gentoo > > I guess I'll try when I'll have some really spare time... > > Thanks for the cool link. The "next step", I guess, is things that > differ conceptually from the familiar Linux we're accustomed to. That > is, if you follow newslogs like OSNews, you'll see a lot of hobbysts and > engineers like to create new kernels. There is less interest in doing > conceptually novel userlands (novel shells etc.) or it is just my > impression? Maybe a more boring task?
there are many shells. sh, bash, bsh. korn, csh, zsh, dash, tcsh, .... why make a new one, if you can do incredible stuff with zsh? A shell is not so easy to create. A new kernel is not so hard to do. The problem are the drivers - and all the quirks. It is one thing to write a little task scheduler for your little pet project, but if it crashs constantly it becomes a bitch to fight through all the errata. But at the beginning a simple kernel is much easier to do than stuff that runs on it (simple is the important work. A non-simple kernel is very hard). Another thing are libcs. A libc is a bitch. Luckily there is a whole bunch to choose from. glibc, bsd's libc, uclibc, dietlibc, ... so why re-invent the wheel? Or look at X. X is horrible. A convoluted mess of grown cruft and standards to hold the pile together. But where is the replacement? Fiasco/Berlin? failed. Y-window? failed. Because X works good enough. And if you aren't writing toolkits or apps using xlib directly, you don't need to care about most of the stuff. So hobbyist concentrate on the easy stuff - and a userland is not easy. Userland is not boring - it is very hard. And the best userland doesn't help you if no 3rd party software runs on it.
