Subject: Linux-Misc Digest #818
From: Digestifier <Linux-Misc-Request@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU>
To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: Linux-Misc@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU
Date:     Wed, 16 Mar 94 00:13:13 EST

Linux-Misc Digest #818, Volume #1                Wed, 16 Mar 94 00:13:13 EST

Contents:
  Re: *Please* comment on Gateway P4D-66  (486/PCI) (Gisli Ottarsson)
  Sasteroids is great! (Harm Hanemaaijer)
  Linux box on the internet (Mirza Manar Hussain)
  W A N T E D : SLS Distribution in CDROM (Carlos Antunes)
  Re: DOOM for X (Richard Tobin)
  Re: Linux Journal (Harald T. Alvestrand)
  Re: Version 1.0 (Mikael Nordqvist)
  Linux gets in print! (Ken Hoover)
  Re: BSD vs. Linux (Douglas Wade Needham)
  Backup Method -- shell script? (zachary brown)
  DEC pc's (Matthew C Millar)
  Re: pronunciation of linux (Tom Fox)
  LJ arrives! (dan@oea.hacktic.nl)
  Re: Notebook (Re: BSD vs. Linux) (Keith Moore)
  Re: PCI IDE is *not* just IDE on another bus... (robert logan)
  Re: Why "xinit:  Unknown error (errno 0):  Client error."? (Me Myself and I)
  Re: Linux box on the internet (Michael L. VanLoon)
  Re: libm.so.4.5.21 in /usr/lib ?? (Thorsten Meinecke)
  SUMMARY: Linux on PCI bus systems (Munindar Singh)
  Re: BSD vs. Linux (David Holland)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: gisli@timoshenko.eecs.umich.edu (Gisli Ottarsson)
Subject: Re: *Please* comment on Gateway P4D-66  (486/PCI)
Date: 15 Mar 1994 13:57:03 GMT

>>>>> "DM" == David Marples <dmarples@voyager.eee.strath.ac.uk> writes:

  DM> In article <GISLI.94Mar14114046@timoshenko.eecs.umich.edu> gisli@timoshenko.eecs.umich.edu (Gisli Ottarsson) writes:

  GO> I have just placed and order for a Gateway P2D-66 and
  GO> would sleep a little better if I could resolve a few
  GO> iffy areas.  I understand that Gateway is a moving
  GO> target so what works this week may not work next week.

Q&A deleted

  GO> Thanks for any comments.  Needless to say I will post a
  GO> summary if any of these things become sufficiently clear.

  DM> Machines are good, G/W tech. support is unavailable -> Its
  DM> getting worse in the UK too!.

  DM> hope this helps - email for more

No need to summarize.  Dave's info was as good as any I received.
I'm feeling pretty good about this purchase.  Thanks.

Now to write an e-mail request for his Xconfig.  

                                        Gisli
--

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gisli Ottarsson                                    
Grad Student and a Gentleman                      
                                                   Delenda est Carthago.      
University of Michigan                                   
gisli@umich.edu

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

------------------------------

From: hhanemaa@cs.ruu.nl (Harm Hanemaaijer)
Subject: Sasteroids is great!
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 13:50:00 GMT

Anyone played the asteroids VGA game recently announced, Sasteroids? It uses
VGA 320x200x256 graphics mode with svgalib, and is derived from the
xasteroids source. 

It's a great game. It is fast (on a 486/VLB at least), plays *very* smoothly
and is very addictive. Keyboard controlling works well (even though it
just uses the standard keyboard interface).

How about high scores? Anyone beat 21,000? (ha ha)

(Just trying to get an "I don't need DOS" point across). 
hhanemaa@cs.ruu.nl

------------------------------

From: mmh@doc.ic.ac.uk (Mirza Manar Hussain)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.apps
Subject: Linux box on the internet
Date: 15 Mar 1994 14:34:22 -0000


Hi all,

I should be in a position to put a computer on the net some time later this
year and offer various services. I was wondering if there are many Linux
boxes out there on the net with much significant access. I would be very
interested in the viability of a Linux box in this situation. It would be
set up to be ftp, telnet, mosiac, gopher -able etc, with accounts available
for remote users and possibly some bbs type discussion areas.

Many thanX.

Manar

------------------------------

From: cmsa@softsousa.pt (Carlos Antunes)
Subject: W A N T E D : SLS Distribution in CDROM
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 15:44:27 GMT

Hello, fellow netters!

Can you please tell me where from where can I get the Linux SLS distribution 
in CDROM?

Please, answer by email.

Thanks!

Regards,
Carlos Antunes.

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.apps
From: richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin)
Subject: Re: DOOM for X
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 13:52:15 GMT

In article <SJA.94Mar15122613@gamma.hut.fi> sja@snakemail.hut.fi (Sakari Jalovaara) writes:
>All of this is academic, though, in that modifying the MIT X server
>to be a shared library is a decidedly non-trivial task...

One problem that has to be addressed is the interaction between
different processes.  If switching between them can occur during a
graphical operation, the windows might all be in different positions
by the time the first process gets to run again.

Perhaps someone can refresh my memory of how this worked in SunWindows?

-- Richard
-- 
Richard Tobin, HCRC, Edinburgh University                 R.Tobin@ed.ac.uk

"Your monkey has got it right, sir."  - HHGTTG

------------------------------

From: hta@uninett.no (Harald T. Alvestrand)
Subject: Re: Linux Journal
Date: 14 Mar 1994 20:36:58 GMT

Just to inform you of the spread:
It arrived in Trondheim, Norway, today.
My counter was in it (although it has been a thousand new entries
since the Journal went to press!)
Hurried layout, fun to have.
-- 
                   Harald Tveit Alvestrand
                Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no
      G=Harald;I=T;S=Alvestrand;O=uninett;P=uninett;C=no
                      +47 73 59 70 94
My son's name is Torbjxrn. The letter between "j" and "r" is o with a slash.
  Register with the Linux Counter! E-mail to linux-counter@uninett.no!

------------------------------

From: d91mn@efd.lth.se (Mikael Nordqvist)
Subject: Re: Version 1.0
Date: 14 Mar 1994 19:08:17 GMT

In article <1994Mar14.132245.9833@lulea.trab.se> anders@lulea.trab.se (Anders Eriksson) writes:
>
>A couple of months ago I saw a post about Linux version 1.0 and it said
>something like 'Version 1.0 will be available in about one month, when
>XXX have received sufficent patches for version 0.99 pl 15'. Since then
>I've hurd nothing! What's happening?
>
>please fill me in !
>
>/Anders
>
Got released at noon today as a matter of fact :) Get it at nic.funet.fi.

/Mikael
-- 
Mikael Nordqvist, student    | d91mn@efd.lth.se
Lund Institute of Technology | mech@df.lth.se

------------------------------

From: ken@ch201c.ed.psu.edu (Ken Hoover)
Subject: Linux gets in print!
Date: 15 Mar 1994 16:59:28 GMT

  On page 3 of this week's PC LEAK  (err.. PC WEEK) magazine there's a quote
from someone talking about Chicago (AKA Windoze 4.0) saying:

  " What all about all the alternatives to Windows, like NextStep,
UnixWare, Linux, 386BSD, Coherent or OS/2, that are here now! "

  Nice surprise for us Linux users that we came not only ahead of 386BSD,
but before OS/2.  However, he listed NextStep and UnixWare first...

--
Kenneth J. Hoover                 |  "There is not one shred of evidence
ITSS Supervisor of Systems & Ops  |   that life is serious." - Joseph Campbell
Penn State College of Education   |   ken@ch201c.ed.psu.edu
     -=*  Linux 1.0 - the completely free UN*X for 386/486/Pentium! *=-

------------------------------

From: dneedham@csi.compuserve.com (Douglas Wade Needham)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: BSD vs. Linux
Date: 14 Mar 1994 16:20:22 -0500

I thought I would add my $1.00 worth (inflation ya'know 8) ).  I have the 
release notes for BSDI 1.1 (released in February) handy, and on page 8, they
state RAM requirements of "4MB to 256MB; 8MB minimum for X".  IMHO it is 
really turning out to be a nice OS for an old BSD kernel person like myself.
Now all I am really waiting (re: drooling) for is for it to be moved over
to BSD4.4 now that the suit is settled. 8)  Just MHO.

- doug
*******************************************************************************
My options are my own.  Since I do not want them, why should my employer? 8)
Douglas Wade Needham                            BSD kernel programmer 
Email:  dneedham@csi.compuserve.com  -or-       dneedham@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu
USnail: Compuserve                              216 S. Burgess Ave.
        5000 Arlington Centre Blvd.             Columbus OH 43204
        Columbus, OH 43220
Voice:  (614)457-8600                           (614)274-0769


------------------------------

From: zbrown@lynx.dac.neu.edu (zachary brown)
Subject: Backup Method -- shell script?
Date: 15 Mar 1994 09:31:32 -0500

I'm relatively new to Unix but recently installed Slackware 1.1.2 on my
386/25. I'd like to keep my DOS partition as small as possible by moving
my data to the linux partition, but only if I'll be able to keep good
backups.

Does anyone know a simple shell script that will copy a directory tree
verbatim onto multiple floppies, such that in order to restore it all I
have to do is mount each floppy and do a cp (or some other simple)
command? I know in DOS such a batch program would be terribly
convoluted. Is it easier in linux?

I know tar can span multiple floppies, but a) I'd like to graduate to
that method--maybe; and b) I haven't been able to get tar to work at all.

Thanks to all for helping a poor DOSshocked newbie.   %^) lovitlovit


------------------------------

From: millar@teaching.physics.ox.ac.uk (Matthew C Millar)
Subject: DEC pc's
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 17:11:24 GMT


Can anyone comment on using DEC PC's with Linux?
-- 
/\/\att /\/\illar            uv94002@ox.ac.uk

"Everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around"
                                - They Might be Giants, 'We Want a Rock, Flood'

------------------------------

From: lestat@armory.com (Tom Fox)
Subject: Re: pronunciation of linux
Date: 14 Mar 1994 23:15:31 GMT

Linux rhymes with clinics



simple enough?
good.

-- 
============================================================================
        Delta H - The way of the world, my twisted little world
============================================================================


------------------------------

From: dan@oea.hacktic.nl
Subject: LJ arrives!
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 16:39:08 GMT


Got my first issue in the mail today. Enjoyed reading it except for
a highly negative article by the debian guy.

-- 
|< Dan Naas        dan@oea.hacktic.nl >|
+--------------------------------------+

------------------------------

From: moore@cs.utk.edu (Keith Moore)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: Notebook (Re: BSD vs. Linux)
Date: 14 Mar 1994 23:31:00 GMT
Reply-To: moore@cs.utk.edu

In article <2lp2t9$r73@u.cc.utah.edu>, terry@cs.weber.edu (Terry Lambert) writes:
> >Have you tried to put your notebook on a network with a PCMCIA ethernet
> >card?
> 
> Works great; all you need is a PCMCIA enabler shim, which is very few lines
> of code to write, especially if you have doc's for PCMCIA.  Most of the
> network cards are NE2000 compatible.  Should take you half an hour.
> 
> It also works with anything else PCMCIA if you code things right (or one
> network card exactly if you do it wrong), including FAX modems and SCSI
> interfaces for things like tape drives.  8-).

Seems like there's not quite enough information there.  In particular,
some PCMCIA cards don't decode all of the I/O address lines (so you
can map them into several different regions based on how you set up
the interface chip), and there doesn't always seem to be enough
information in the configuration tuples to tell you where to map the
card to look like an equivalent isa bus device.

But I'd love to see some code that proves me wrong!

Also, the enabler shim needs to know about the whereabouts of other
devices in your system, so that it doesn't map a PCMCIA card on top of
something that already exists.

(still trying to get my ethernet driver working for netbsd...)

--
Keith Moore / U.Tenn CS Dept / 107 Ayres Hall / Knoxville TN  37996-1301
Internet: moore@cs.utk.edu      BITNET: moore@utkvx
Preserve the fourth amendment!  Say HELL NO to key escrow!

------------------------------

From: rl@dmu.ac.uk (robert logan)
Subject: Re: PCI IDE is *not* just IDE on another bus...
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 18:27:14 GMT

David Marples (dmarples@voyager.eee.strath.ac.uk) wrote:

: To get the real boost (and, under Linux, much lower processor
: utilisation) you need to turn on the DMA mode.  This should then beat
: the performace of SCSI drives (especially if you only have one drive
: in your system) in terms of busy time etc.

My Phoenix PCI bios (GW 2000 486 PCI) has options for DMA or
PIO access for the IDE interface - is this what you talk of?

I noticed something with my WD 2540 IDE on PCI in DOS. On a cold
boot the disk has a DTR of 3.9 Mbytes/s - but after running
a few apps it drops to 0.85 Mbytes/sec - some of the drives
ability has gone (using Coretest 2.92)

I wonder if this is the case in Linux - is there a good
benchmark program for IDE disks under Linux? I would like
to test the DTR if poss. (The filesystem will change the
result, but I want to see if it drops as in DOS).

--
NOBODY could sleep. When the morning |  Linux pl15f 
came, the assault craft would be     |  rl@dmu.ac.uk 
lowered and a first wave of troops...|  Slackware 1.1.2

------------------------------

From: akw@ukc.ac.uk (Me Myself and I)
Subject: Re: Why "xinit:  Unknown error (errno 0):  Client error."?
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 15:14:21 GMT
Reply-To: akw@ukc.ac.uk (Me Myself and I)

In article <1994Mar14.152038.16014@mercury.ncat.edu>,
 <hkennedy@mercury.ncat.edu> wrote:

 [ deleted ]
>
>I have a similiar problem. Nothing major.

Similar? :)
>
>Hi,
>
>I just upgraded to sls 1.1.2 (I think that is correct ver. number).
>When I boot the system the following error occurs with init[1]. Can
>anyone point to the correct place where this file is started, so I can
>change the options. 
>

Init is started by lilo, which is what passes the options to it.
'ro' was to make the / filing system mount read only, it doesn't seem
to do this now (new version of init? Kernel change? dunno ...).
lilo will pass this flag if there is a line in your lilo config file
saying :-

        READ-ONLY

if you remove this line and re-install lilo, the error should go away.

You then may need to do :-

        rdev -R /vmlinuz 1
                ^^^^^^^^ or whatever your kernel is called.

To make it mount the / filing system read-only.

But then I could just be barking uo completely the wrong tree ...

Andy.

------------------------------

From: michaelv@iastate.edu (Michael L. VanLoon)
Crossposted-To: comp.os.386bsd.apps
Subject: Re: Linux box on the internet
Date: 15 Mar 94 15:18:31 GMT

In <2m4h1e$8ec@oak7.doc.ic.ac.uk> mmh@doc.ic.ac.uk (Mirza Manar Hussain) writes:

>I should be in a position to put a computer on the net some time later this
>year and offer various services. I was wondering if there are many Linux
>boxes out there on the net with much significant access. I would be very
>interested in the viability of a Linux box in this situation. It would be
>set up to be ftp, telnet, mosiac, gopher -able etc, with accounts available
>for remote users and possibly some bbs type discussion areas.

Of course, since you crossposted this to the *BSD newsgroups, you can
pretty much expect that we're going to tell you that NetBSD or FreeBSD
will do networking on the Internet much better than a Linux box will.
Of course, then the Linux people will deny it and say that their
networking code has improved over the last several months.  So, to
avoid all that, you ought to try them all and see which of them works
best for you.  The *BSD FAQ can be obtained from ftp.iastate.edu in
/pub/netbsd/FAQ.

My recommendation is NetBSD.  I had my NetBSD box on the Internet for
a year and a half in my office before I decided to bring it home.  It
worked every bit as well as our Ultrix workstations (sometimes better)
as a shared part of our campus ethernet.

                                --Michael


-- 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 Michael L. VanLoon                 Iowa State University Computation Center
    michaelv@iastate.edu                    Project Vincent Systems Staff
  Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free Unix for PC/Mac/Amiga/etc.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

------------------------------

From: thm@aglaia.IN-Berlin.DE (Thorsten Meinecke)
Subject: Re: libm.so.4.5.21 in /usr/lib ??
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 21:59:47 GMT

In article <1994Mar15.010508.14711@compiler.tdcnet.nl>,
J.S. van Oosten <jvoosten@compiler.tdcnet.nl> wrote:
> David E. Filip (dfilip@colornet.com) wrote:
> : According to the man page for ld.so, it does implictly look in both /lib
> : and /usr/lib, again, unless for some reason it thinks that it needs a
> : static lib (and I do NOT have a libm.a).
>                                   ^^^^^^
> You just answered your own question! While linking, you always need these
> libXXXXX.[s]a files from /usr/lib. They contain some necassarey routines and
> some code to load from /lib/libXXXX.so. If you want shared code, use
> the '-N -s' flags on the final compilation (which is actually linking). This
       ^^^^^ 
> will create significantly smaller binaries. The libXXXX.sa libraries are
> just the non-static variants of the normal ones.
> 
> As mentioned before, in this stage 'ld.so' is not relevant, you need 'ld' or
> better, the man page of 'gcc'.

Poor lost souls,
they're thinking they're forcing shared linkage with '-N' ;-)

In my understanding, last influenced by articles that appeared 4 weeks ago
on c.o.l.h under the subject "get'em small: gcc -N always? No.", they won't.
Therein it is written:

 From: "Bill C. Riemers" <bcr@physics.purdue.edu>
 The -N option tells gcc not to pad blocks, meaning two things:
 1. Demand loading no-longer works.  The whole program will always be
    loaded.
 2. When swapping, the whole program will be swapped in and out of memory,
    not just the inactive blocks.

 From: jlnance@eos.ncsu.edu
 Programs compiled with gcc -N can not share pages in the computers memory.
 This means that if you compile /bin/bash with the -N option, every running
 copy of bash will have its own copy in memory, whereas if you do not use
 -N, there will only be 1 copy.

I do not say: RTFM, because the '-N' option doesn't seem to be mentioned in 
my gcc texinfo manual. The '-s' option isn't either, but it does the same
as strip(1) does.

Default behaviour is linking with the shared libraries, provided that the
appropriate lib*.sa files are found, unless overridden with '-g' or '-static'.

Hope I got it right. Else, please feel free to correct me. Th

> J. v. O.
> 
> --
> I always cry when I have to reboot Linux to return to DOS... *sniff*
-- 
Thorsten Meinecke - 30 year old computer addict
Though this be madness, yet there's method in't

------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.help
From: msingh@weber.mcc.com (Munindar Singh)
Subject: SUMMARY: Linux on PCI bus systems
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 00:09:34 GMT


I posted a query about Linux on PCI systems about a week ago.  I
append the responses I received (lightly edited).  

Apparently, Linux works fine on PCI bus systems in general, though
someone reports a problem with IDE controllers on a Comtrade system.
Drivers for SCSI controllers are not yet implemented, though Drew
Eckhardt's release of the NCR53c810 (SCSI) driver is forthcoming.
Michael Will mentions an older summary on the same topic, which I
haven't yet seen.  Maybe someone can repost it?

Thanks to the following for responding: Ken Firestone, Tom
Drabenstott, Drew Eckhardt, CARSTEN@aworld.aworld.de, Michael Will,
and Zenon Fortuna.

-- Munindar Singh
msingh@mcc.com      

============================================================================
============================================================================
Hi,

Has anyone successfully run Linux on a PCI bus system, i.e., with a
PCI motherboard?

The Linux_INFO-SHEET (last updated 21 Jan) says that "Some people have
started support for PCI, but it is currently not ready for the
standard distribution on Linux."  Since apparently releases are made
quite frequently, has there been any change in this status?  
Do people have a feel for how long it might take before Linux becomes
usable on PCI bus systems (not fully debugged, just usable)?  Is
special complexity to be expected if, say, IDE devices are used on a
PCI bus?

I hope this will be of interest to many.  Apparently, PCI bus systems
are being sold cheaper than equivalent VESA bus systems (at least by
Gateway).

I welcome comments, even if they are speculative in nature.

Thanks a lot,
Munindar Singh (new to Linux)
============================================================================
============================================================================
From: Ken Firestone <kenf@clark.net>
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 11:09:03 -0500


: Has anyone successfully run Linux on a PCI bus system, i.e., with a
: PCI motherboard?

Yes, I have. I managed to load it onto a Gateway 486 with a PCI bus, and 
IDE drive.  so far it runs fine on the limited stuff I've tried, (*GCC, X).
I know of a number of other folks who are running Linux on PCI machines.

There may be additional optimizations, utilization of SCSI that have to 
be added, I don't know what will be needed.

It appears to be quite usable on PCI machines NOW!

Ken Firestone, N3JBU
============================================================================
============================================================================
From: tldraben@eos.ncsu.edu
Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 13:42:21 -0500

Yes, I have Linux running on a Comtrade Best Buy PCI.

My PCI bus IDE controller does not work at all.  I do not know why and
have only started looking into it.

If you get any motherboard recommendations I'd be interested in hearing
them.  I have a TMC PCI48X Motherboard, Rev 1.0, and I believe it has the
infamous Saturn Chipset Bug. (In which bus performance is poor due to
improper Write_Back cache).

                             Thanks,
                                        -- Tom Drabenstott
============================================================================
============================================================================
From: Drew Eckhardt <drew@kinglear.cs.colorado.edu>
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 1994 19:15:26 -0700

Yes.  I'm currently logged in from my Linux PCI box.

PCI works, the only problem is that the NCR53c810 used on many 
systems is not <yet> supported, although I'm working on that
and am close to releasing the driver.

IDE isn't a problem, S3 boards like the #9 XGE Level 12 aren't, the only
thing you want is NCR53c810 support if you want a SCSI system.

 ----
The IDE controllers used on PCI busses are 100% compatible with standard
IDE controllers for the first two drives, I'm not sure what they do for 
the second two.
    
============================================================================
============================================================================
From: CARSTEN@aworld.aworld.de
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 94 15:11:00 CET


YES - I do run linux (pl15) on a PCI-based computer (ASUS_motherboard).

There is no way to use on-board-scsi-controller yet under linux.  The
author of the driver is working on it - maybe it is ready in 2 months,
maybe tomorrow.

Because the PCI-bus is transparent to the programs, there are no other
compatibility problems.  I use a PCI graphics board, the on-board
IDE-controller, the on-board serial and parallel ports - no problem.

tschuess
    carsten
============================================================================
============================================================================
From: zxmgv07@student.uni-tuebingen.de (Michael Will)
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 12:21:40 +0100

Look out for an older article SUMMARY: PCI and Linux 
on comp.os.linux.misc...

It contains a great deal of information about that subject,
only I have not at hand that thing at the moment...

Cheers, Michael Will
============================================================================
============================================================================
Subject: Re: PCI motherboard and devices - comp.os.linux.misc #11581
Date: Mon, 14 Mar 94 13:31:08 CST

In article <1994Mar12.222254.8580@resonex.com>,
zenon@resonex.com (Zenon Fortuna) writes:

I have installed the SLS 1.03 (but I will reinstall to Slackware) on a
P5-66 system. Only the graphics card was a PCI one - the SCSI disk interface
(and some other, not related to installation, devices) were IDE.
Linux used the devices without problem.

I am waiting impatiently for support of the NCR PCI-SC200 FAST SCSI
card ...  There was a discussion about relevant driver almost 2 months
ago, but since then a big silence.

        zenon@resonex.com
============================================================================
============================================================================




------------------------------

Crossposted-To: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: BSD vs. Linux
From: dholland@husc7.harvard.edu (David Holland)
Date: 15 Mar 94 16:13:52


 > > That was just an example. There are all sorts of areas where excess
 > > junk floats in.
 > 
 > Yes, there can be excess junk in software.  In this specific case:
 > where, exactly, is there excess junk in BSD?

Did I ever say there *was*? I said I'd GATHERED there was. Evidently
either things have changed, or the FAQs were/are seriously out of date
or just plain wrong.

 > Oh, as we were discussing kernel bloat due to unnecessary code,
 > I didn't think it might be even remotely relevant to look at
 > compressed kernel sizes.  Unless the CPU can execute such code
 > without unreasonable overhead.

No, it's not, particularly. Linux no longer supports uncompressed
kernels, though, so I can't exactly go build one to find out how big
it is. Nor is my system fast enough to compile kernels for fun, no
matter what OS it runs.


Somebody else has said that the crap has been carefully cleaned out of
the BSD code. This is definitely admirable, not to mention rare.
(Anybody who doesn't believe that is free to examine the exponentially
growing sizes of both commercial unix kernels and typical
applications, including free applications.)

In any case, you don't need to be so hostile - you're probably
alienating people.

--
   - David A. Holland          | "The right to be heard does not automatically
     dholland@husc.harvard.edu |  include the right to be taken seriously."
   -  -         -         -       -         -  -    -     -        -
 This message shall NOT be quoted or copied out of the electronic medium
 in which it originated without explicit permission from the author. 

------------------------------


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Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites:
    nic.funet.fi				pub/OS/Linux
    tsx-11.mit.edu				pub/linux
    sunsite.unc.edu				pub/Linux

End of Linux-Misc Digest
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