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From: bzs@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Large file systems
Message-ID: <28956@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Date: 25 Mar 89 13:29:04 GMT
References: <15184@cup.portal.com> <15407@cup.portal.com> <16230@mimsy.UUCP> <21216@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <13324@steinmetz.ge.com> <28819@bu-cs.BU.EDU> <13431@steinmetz.ge.com>
Organization: Boston U. Comp. Sci.
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In-reply-to: davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com's message of 24 Mar 89 21:24:03 GMT


>  Now, if we assume that vendors are shipping a SysV derivitive, is
>there really an advantage to doing the research on a BSD kernel?
>Certainly if most of the vendors are shipping SysV, they will not be
>thrilled at having the development be done on BSD which is still related
>to V7. If you build a new filesystem is there an advantage to using
>something other than SysV for the starting point.
>
>NOTE: I am assuming that the vendors who have joined OSF or UNIX
>Internat. will be shipping a SysV flavor in 3-5 years, rather than BSD.
>The original question was if there will still be advantages to using
>BSD for anything, including kernel research.
>-- 
>	bill davidsen		(wedu@crd.GE.COM)

Two points:

1. It doesn't matter a whole lot what platform the research is done
on, if someone comes up with the better mousetrap the doorward path
will be beaten. It's not all that important, consider it a full
employment act for system programmers :-)

2. You're overemphasizing the name, although they're calling it SysV
it has a lot of BSD stuff in there, it really is a merge.

Remember the old maxim, "If it works...it can't be state of the art".

I think if all you're fretting over is what you express above then
your concerns are factually correct but of minor concern. By
definition any research variant will differ from what the vendors are
shipping and great, new ideas will have to be merged in to be adopted,
and will be merged, happily, when the value evidences itself.

	-Barry Shein, Software Tool & Die