[openbeos] Re: Open BeOS

Hello,

GNU is basically a collection of utilities that were once part of
closed-source Unix. The GNU folks took those utilities and made their own
open-source versions.

Although SCO may agree with you on this one; I have to disagree. Even the meaning of GNU clearly indicates that it is not Unix, or even based on any Unix code or philosophy. Command names and typically arguments were used to name the GNU software they wrote (command compatibility is key, the same reason DOS used same commands as CPM), I am sure everyone knows that GNU is not "a collection of utilities that were once part of closed-source Unix".

So the phrase 'a GNU system' implies a Unix-like operating system. Unlike
Linux, FreeBSD, and the rest, the design of BeOS is not at all Unix-like.
That's why it won't be realistic to expect that you can take the BeOS kernel
and use it as a replacement for the Linux/FreeBSD/whatever kernel.

This is what I am interested in finding out, how good is BeOS's implementation for process communication, and how the kernel architecture works. Providing OBOS is virtually POSIX compliant I don't see anything that would stop anyone getting a GNU system with OBOS kernel off the ground within a few weeks. (Famous last words perhaps). Can anyone confirm if BeOS/OBOS is POSIX compliant?

That doesn't mean Unix or command line utilities are bad. In fact, the Bash
shell is one of the few things that BeOS _did_ borrow from Unix.

Included with BeOS5: The entire compiler suite, fileutilities, gnu-utils, texutils many more packages are by GNU. This is great, precisely what everyone should be doing in fact. No point in reinventing the wheel, unless it is going to be replaced with a standard form of Concorde etc :)

Kind regards


JG


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