Warning - FreeBSD (*BSD) entanglement in Linux ecosystem

David Jackson djackson452 at gmail.com
Wed Aug 22 13:41:08 UTC 2012


On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 7:03 AM, Jamie Paul Griffin <jamie at kode5.net> wrote:

> [ Michel Talon wrote on Wed 22.Aug'12 at 12:29:56 +0200 ]
>
> >
> > David Jackson said:
>
> > > In reference to the claims that systemd developers "do not care about
> > > portability", this is deceptive and misleading.
>
> > You should read the following interview of Lennart Poettering
> > http://linuxfr.org/nodes/86687/comments/1249943
> > The amount of hubris and self confidence he deploys is really
> > astounding. I will just quote two extracts:
>
> > " LinuxFr.org : Systemd use a lot of Linux only technologies (cgroups,
> > udev, fanotify, timerfd, signalfd, etc). Do you really think the Linux
> > API has been taking the role of the POSIX API and the other systems are
> > irrelevant ?
>
> > Lennart : Yes, I don't think BSD is really too relevant anymore, and I
> > think that this implied requirement for compatibility with those systems
> > when somebody hacks software for the free desktop or ecosystem is a
> > burden, and holds us back for little benefit.  "
>
>


That sort of shows my point in fact. There is nothing stopping FreeBSD from
implementing cgroups,  udev, fanotify, timerfd, signalfd, its not like
Linux is going to enforce patents on these things, its software, and
freebsd can easily add code to support these things, and as well, systemd.
You are acting like there is dependancy in systemd on some hardware device
you cannot change, this is not true, Software is flexible and can be easily
extended and improved, they use some software features provided by the OS,
and you clearly can install these features into FreeBSD if you would care
to do so. FreeBSD can implement all of the software interfaces to make
systemd and other software portable to FreeBSD.

So this is clearly not about "portability", FreeBSD is free to implement
these software interfaces to assure that software is portable to FreeBSD.
What this is about is FreeBSDs refusal to implement equivalent
functionality as Linux has. On this, FreeBSD has only itself to blame if it
refuses to do so, since FreeBSD clearly has the capability to easily add
the code necessary.

Clearly this is all FreeBSDs politics. It refuses to implement the features
because Linux developed because of the animosity towards Linux. FreeBSD has
a "not made here syndrome".

FreeBSD would rather criticize other OSs that are trying to improve their
features and flexibility, and power, rather than to improve itself.

As for FreeBSDs market share, it is vanishingly small on the desktop with
far less uptake than Linux. It is also shrinking in the server area, there
is increasingly little reason to use an OS that has worse hardware support,
less functionality. Linux is just as reliable as FreeBSD and has more
functionality by far.

I have been a supporter of FreeBSD for some time, but it was becoming clear
that Linux distributions can offer much more and are just as reliable, in
addition to offering more capabilities, power and features. all of this has
left little reason to keep using FreeBSD. Why use an OS that has less
features and capabilities when there are more powerful alternatives with
more capabilities that are just as reliable, available?




> This guy seems to be a real moron. What a ridiculous statement to make.
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