> > There are several operating systems, Debian, RedHat, > > Mandrake, which only have in common to use the Linux kernel. > > This is incorrect. All relevant Linux distributions are not only based > on the same kernel, but almost almost all of the same userland software > as well. (Specifically, GNU software, much of which is a core part of > FreeBSD as well.) The main areas where they differ are the configuration > details (what files are where, how to configure services such as init > scripts and networking, etc) and package management. There are of course > other differences, but these two are the biggies.
All Linux distributions use glibc; while BSDs use their own version of libc. But these are only technicalities. More important is that the BSDs use a central CVS repository for the whole OS (minus third party packages), whereas in the Linux world, the "vendors" maintain separate (mostly with source, but sometimes binary-only as well) collections of separately maintained software. If the developers of Linux' base utilities, glibc, kernel etc... submitted all their source code to a "Linux CVS" repo, and all distributions were built on top of that, they would have adopted an important part (though not everything) of BSDs philosophy [putting the different licensing schemes aside for a moment]. However, this is unlikely to happen any time soon (if at all), mostly for political reasons: the FSF, Linus, and a lot of other developers would have to agree to share a single repository, and this is particulary difficult to achieve. Anyway, both development models are quite viable, and it is amazing to see how both "camps" are making excellent progress. -- Cordula's Web. http://www.cordula.ws/ _______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"