Granted we're maybe not ready for this discussion yet, but I just
wanted to jot down some insights I had while reading recent postings.
So far the shared thread I'm seeing out of the discussion of the
underlying OS is toward DragonFlyBSD. Quentin, Alex and Nicolas (via
David's comment) have all expressed interest in that system:
Quentin: ...That's precisely what DragonFlyBSD VFS should allow when
finished (this year probably)...
David: ...Nicolas suggested a while back that he would be interested
in building a GNUstep-based system on top of DragonflyBSD to take
advantage of some of the low-level message passing mechanisms it
provides for distributed objects. This could also be interesting,
although I believe that Dragonfly is currently x86 only...
Alex: ...I personally really really like DragonflyBSD, and wouldn't
mind seeing a GNUstep-based desktop OS built around it, but its
hardware support is also lacking...
Alex: ...FreeBSD and possibly DragonflyBSD are still options, as well
as Linux...
Many of its technical goals seem to be good fits for some of the things
we would like to implement in Étoilé. Not to mention is already has a
working LiveCD implementation.
David cited portability reasons as an advantage to NetBSD, but after
reading an interview with the maintainer of DragonFly here <
http://www.osnews.com/printer.php?news_id=6338 >, it seems that he is
planning on ports to x86-64 and PPC (with an undefined and a 1-2 year
timeframe, respectively). Quentin made mention of this as well in his
last email.
I read on the GNUstep Platform Compatibility page <
http://mediawiki.gnustep.org/index.php/Platform_compatibility#DragonFly
> that Quentin is/was also working on the port of GNUstep to DragonFly.
What is the current status of that, Quentin?
Obviously we're not yet ready to jump on the DragonFly bandwagon, but
it might be useful for us to continue to track and explore that OS, and
perhaps even get into a discussion with members of their development
team about integration efforts.
These are all just ideas from a rambling crazy designer suffering from
sleep deprivation... take them for what they're worth :)
J.
