BBS水木清华站∶精华区
发信人: linuxrat (叫我老鼠错不了), 信区: Linux
标 题: 会有个GNU/BSD吗? 难说!
发信站: BBS 水木清华站 (Tue Dec 28 23:50:00 1999)
我转回来一篇文章, 不短. 看看吧. 来自www.linuxtoday.com
======================================================
The opinions expressed by contributors to Linux.com are their own.
Linux.com bears no responsibility for its contributors' opinions.
Choosing Between BSD and GNU - December 27th, 1999
by Jonas 謆erg
During the past years, the free software community has gained much
popularity. Many people have found themselves engaged in an ongoing
battle between what is normally called the ``open source'' faction and
the ``free software'' faction. Several has gone to the extreme point
of thinking that everything in systems like Debian GNU/Linux and Red
Hat Linux developed by the Free Software Foundation, a well-known free
software advocate, should be replaced by utilities from the various
BSD computer systems.
There appears to be a number of reasons for this, some of which can be
supported and some which are only silly. The most interesting reason
is to see if it really can be done. It is understandable that some
people would find this interesting to pursue. As the BSD kernels and
the Linux kernel gets closer to each other it is a natural course of
action to see what utilities that can be mixed in user space. It would
also be interesting to see if one could use a BSD kernel with the GNU
system to form a GNU/BSD system.
There's also a technical aspect in this. Perhaps the GNU make is
inferior to the BSD make. That would give you two options; either
improve the GNU make to meet the same high quality as the BSD make or
replace the GNU make on your system with the BSD make. The fact is
though that most GNU utilities are very well written and work
flawlessly. It is not uncommon for BSD users to run GNU software on
their machines. The GNU software's ability to compile on many
different UNIX flavours has led to a widespread user base that has
been able to debug the programs under very different environments.
So this should not be the reason people want to use BSD utilities
under the Linux kernel. It is not even the technical challenge of
making the systems work together that makes people pursue this course
of action.
The primary reason (incidentally also the silliest reason) is that
they simply do not like the Free Software Foundation or the GNU
Project. When I first heard of this I thought someone was pulling my
leg. The idea that someone would judge software based upon the
copyright holder is, to me, preposterous. Not only is this
unproductive but it is in direct violation with the idea that no one
should have to do the same thing twice. This is unfortunately one of
the more common wastes of human resources in proprietary software
companies and I had hoped it would not spill over to the free software
community.
Is it not silly to go through all the work of replacing
FSF-copyrighted programs simply so you can say "This has no
FSF-copyrighted programs in it?" What they will end up with is a
system similar to BSD and if that is what they want, they could use
any BSD system right away. That would not take any work.
When you decide which programs you should use on your computer you
should judge them based on their programming, documentation,
interactivity with other software and similar matters. You should not
base your decision solemnly on who holds the copyright. In the free
software community, we do not use proprietary Microsoft programs. We
do this not because it is Microsoft but because their software is
inferior to ours. It is also proprietary software which is bad for the
community at a whole.
So the next time you compare two programs in order to decide which to
install I hope that you will ask yourself "Will this program do what I
want?" and not "Was this written by someone I dislike?"
Jonas 謆erg is a webmaster and system administrator for the GNU
Project. He lives in the south of Sweden where he sometimes pretends
to know what he is doing.
Your Comments
Technical merit the only criteria? - 1999-12-28 07:10:15
Choosing software based on technical merit is one criteria. There are
many others. I beleive another relevant criteria is the consequences
(long term) of your choice of software. When you use GPLed software
and choose to develop GPLed software you make it difficult for
propritry software to flourish. When you choose BSD licensed software
you do not. BSD licenced software is like uncoditional love. You give
without condition, so you help open source and proprietry software
alike. There is a long history of vendors of propretry software using
and closing source there improvements to the code base of BSD licenced
software. Since I would prefer to encourage software to remain
available. I deliberatly choose GPL licenced software above BSD
licenced software.
--------------以下是关于上文的评论------------------
BSD, GNU, FSF, MSN, ... - 1999-12-28 02:00:40
Lots of "brands", lots of philosophies, lots of ... incompatibilities.
For example, BSD is still on the same model as it's predecessor ...
Choice of philosophy, you know! Linux has moved a bit, choosing from
BSD and SysV features to implement, cool stuff to add ... But it isn't
"BSD" convergent neither SysV convergent. I mean by that the Linux
Kernel is not going to be the next linuxBSD kernel! Some tools are
better, some others are ... how to say ? ... a bit inferior. Are you
going to use MS Windows NT because it has a really nice minesweeper or
Linux because Quake III is cool on it ? No. You choose an OS because
you know what usage you should have of this OS. It would be ridiculous
to use AIX or WinNT for a small router, has it would be quite stupid
to use an intel Linux box for an Oracle database with a total size far
exceeding 10Go of disk. Anyway the Os "War" is quite ridiculous. It's
like the "Amiga vs Atari" war or "Star Trek vs Star Wars". For me, the
main advantage of many OSes is that you can say "Wow, BSD make is far
superior to GNU make, let's make GNU make a little better!" Not "So,
take the BSD make" ... But after all, that's only my opinion.
zeupouce@hotmail.com http://www.multimania.com/kyrian01
Anonymous ()
--------
Same purpose - 1999-12-28 00:18:30
Either BSD or GPL or something
else we should work together to give everybody a chance to have good
software for their hardware......
Anonymous ()
Reply to Comment (Replies: 0)
Huh? - 1999-12-27 18:03:16
I'm not sure about this, but hasn't the Linux OS over the past few
years been transitioning from using BSD stuff to using GNU stuff? Like
libc for instance. Didn't we just move from BSD libc to GNU libc?
Anonymous ()
Reply to Comment (Replies: 0)
Unfortunately, the GPL encourages duplication of effort. - 1999-12-27
16:11:30
I understand the rationale behind it, and I don't want you to consider
this as an attack on the GPL, but if someone is adding significant
value to a product and needs commercial funding for it... that is,
they can't depend on support services and voluntary contributions to
pay for the development, they can't effectively use a lot of
GPL-covered code.
So having a rich suite of BSD-licensed (or licensed under similarly
non-transitive terms) software really does reduce the amount of
duplication of effort.
I mean, yes, it'd be really keen if nobody had to work for a living
and could write software all the time, but that day isn't going to
come any time soon. We will continue to use a mixed economy of free
and proprietary solutions... and we all benefit if the proprietary
ones have as much common software, interfaces, and protocols as
possible.
Anonymous ()
Reply to Comment (Replies: 0)
The author is wrong... - 1999-12-27 15:25:35
He claims that the free software community does not use Microsoft
software because it is inferior to the free equivalents. That is
definitely not true. I know many people who will not use software
solely because it is from Microsoft, regardless of whether it is
better or worse at a given task. They simply do not like Microsoft. In
the same way, some people simply do not like the GPL and similar
licenses. Some do not like the BSD licenses. Sure you may have to
'reinvent the wheel' (I hate that damned cliche), but when you are
done you are not encumbered by the previous wheelmakers ideology. And
that, to some people (myself included), is worth the extra effort.
Anonymous ()
Reply to Comment (Replies: 1)
* Re: The author is wrong... - Anonymous (Replies: 0)
OSS Hypocrisy - 1999-12-27 15:18:27
The idea that someone would
judge software based upon the copyright holder is, to me,
preposterous. ... This is unfortunately one of the more common wastes
of human resources in proprietary software companies and I had hoped
it would not spill over
to the free software community.
Isn't this a little hypocritical? I don't mean you specifically, but
in general. I can't count how many times somebody has ripped into a
piece of Microsoft software simply because it came from Microsoft,
usually refraining from offering any criticism beyond that of
"Gee, it's Microsoft, therefore it sucks."
And this isn't just limited to Microsoft. Companies that make
proprietary products are often accused of making terrible software
simply because their software is proprietary. For instance, Be
develops BeOS. BeOS is of a technical quality on par with Linux. It is
*slightly* less stable than Linux, but the software works, works well,
is fast and reliable. Yet the BeOS is often dismissed as "crap"
simply because Be is unwilling to GPL the OS. In other words, software
is being judged because of the company who makes it.
I do agree with you that it is a very silly reason. The software
product should be judged on the merits of the product, not on its
parent corporation or entity/person of manufacture. On the other hand,
I find more and more that OSS advocates decry one practice, but think
nothing of turning around and using the exact same practice against
the entities or products they don't like.
It's just a little frustrating for me. It seems that just when I'm all
set to take the OSS community seriously, I find it talking out of both
sides of its mouth (ESR included). Ironically, the only person who
seems absolutely steadfast in his beliefs and unwilling to waver in
them is Richard Stallman - who is rather poorly liked, although
well-respected, in the Linux community.
Anonymous ()
Reply to Comment (Replies: 1)
________END of Forwarded__________________________________________
--
|======================+========================+====================|
| 以无法为有法 ， | 拳本无法，有法也空； | 我爱GNU/Linux, |
| 以无限为有限 | 一法不立，无法不容。| 因为我爱自由！ |
| | | |
| 截拳道宗师-李小龙 | 意拳宗师-王芗斋 | 土人 Linuxrat |
|======================+========================+====================|
※ 来源:·BBS 水木清华站 smth.org·[FROM: 202.112.168.253]
BBS水木清华站∶精华区