On 8/22/2014 1:08 PM, Sia Lang wrote:
On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 8:51 PM, A. D. Sharpe
<demetrioussharpe@xxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:demetrioussharpe@xxxxxxxxxxxx>>
wrote:
You know, I probably have no right to comment on this, but I'm
sick of people trying to divert the development of other
alternative operating systems & turn them into "yet another Unix
clone", "yet another Linux distro", or "yet another vehicle for
the Linux kernel". It's disgusting & very disrespectful of the
specific OSes that're being referenced. BeOS, Haiku, AtheOS,
Syllable, Pyro, etc. represent a different family of OS.
It wouldn't be a Linux distro or a Unix clone, the same way OSX isn't
a NextSTEP or NetBSD distro or clone. A BeOS clone based on Linux or
BSD would bear no resemblance to Ubuntu or FreeBSD. It would look and
feel like BeOS (with a butt load of drivers so you could actually get
your usb3 dingies and hardcore graphics apps going.)
That's cute. OS X isn't a NextSTEP clone mainly because it actually IS
NeXTSTEP. Not a clone, but the actual very same codebase with a few
upgrades. You see, that's the very reason Apple bought NeXT -they were
shopping for an operating system. Likewise, it wouldn't be a NetBSD
clone because it actually has NetBSD & FreeBSD code. It's a small
amount, but if anyone wanted to get technical, that wouldn't make it a
clone -it'd make it closer to the real McCoy.
That's very much the point. It wouldn't be a BeOS clone anymore, it'd be another Linux. Why? Because Linux isn't all of the crap that's included in the whole distribution. Linux is the kernel -just the kernel. Linux isn't the gnu crap that's added. It isn't one of the various package managers. It isn't the GUI. It's just the kernel. That's why it's called a Linux "distrobution". Any group that used the Linux kernel is simply distributing the Linux kernel with other stuff wrapped around it.If you read the thread carefully, at least some long-time Haiku project members (certainly not all) find the Linux/BeAPI option interesting, but the proof is in the pudding - let's see how it goes before calling it disgusting.There's a substantial, but diminishing group of BeOS fans eager to get a BeOS clone working on their hardware. Not evaluating options to get there in a reasonable timeframe, now, *that* is disrespectful to BeOS fans.
By the way, this was one of the nails that helped bury Syllable -the creation of Syllable Server. Only 2 members of the team were working on it, but it caused a feeling of being abandoned & double crossed. It was one of the main reason that many of the team members left. Also, Be Inc. could've used any kernel that they wanted to. They had the money, they evaluated a ton of them -including FreeBSD, which was farther along than Linux at that time. You know what they found? None of the available operating systems met their needs. Their userlands didn't do what Be wanted them to do, simply because their kernels didn't have that functionality available to export. Linux, today, doesn't have that functionality, either. Now that you're bringing this idea to into this community, I wonder if you even have any idea of why the current kernel is better than Linux for what this project is trying to do. Do you have any earthly idea? The ONLY thing that Linux does better than the current Haiku kernel is support more drivers. Well, since those drivers are available, the most sensible thing is to port them. Nothing else in the Linux kernel compares to the Haiku kernel for what Haiku is trying to do. It's a well known fact that BeOS's threading implementation is more invasive than pretty much any other OS available. I'd love to see you graft that functionality into Linux. You'll never be able to find what's necessary within another Unix derivative kernel, so you could only get it by injecting the code from the NewOS/Haiku kernel. That's like removing a working heart from a human, so you can replace it with an artificial heart; but you need the valves from the original heart, so you transplant them into the artificial heart...madness!
-- Regards, A. D. Sharpe, Sr.
