From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,bc1361a952ec75ca X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-08-29 01:19:39 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!newsfeed.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!213.56.195.71!fr.usenet-edu.net!usenet-edu.net!enst!melchior.enst.fr!not-for-mail From: Samuel Tardieu Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Progress on AdaOS Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 10:19:23 +0200 Organization: A poorly-installed InterNetNews site Message-ID: <3B8CA58B.30405@rfc1149.net> References: <9IFe7.12813$6R6.1221214@news1.cableinet.net> <9lghqu$ac6$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3B7C3293.76F49097@home.com> <9lhefg$lgd$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3B7D47F1.25D6FC78@boeing.com> <5ee5b646.0108171856.18631c4c@posting.google.com> <3B7F624B.7294D24F@acm.org> <9lr6je$5hj$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9ltoi7$4is$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3B82789B.8D195045@home.com> <9ltuo8$70n$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3B829450.879B0396@home.com> <9mdhr7$qdo$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <9mekkt$pij$1@melchior.enst.fr> <9mg5vi$r16$1@nh.pace.co.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: trillian.enst.fr Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: melchior.enst.fr 999073178 9783 137.194.205.1 (29 Aug 2001 08:19:38 GMT) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:0.9.3) Gecko/20010807 X-Accept-Language: fr-FR, fr, en Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:12547 Date: 2001-08-29T10:19:23+02:00 List-Id: Marin David Condic wrote: > However, it isn't a crime for an OS to get big. The more > functionality you force down into an OS the less functionality > needs to reside in the apps running on it. This reasonning quickly leads to code bloat. This is why I do trust Linux-based systems more than Microsoft ones but less than BSD ones (BSD developpers usually reject features that are not deemed as vital, as they can be provided by external applications which don't need to be part of the OS itself (the OS in this case being basically the kernel + everything not in /usr/local or /usr/X11R6). You need to *trust* your OS. That's why I love when it is small. If a particular package fails to suit my needs or is buggy, I just replace it. If a part of the OS fails to suit my needs or is buggy, either I am stuck with it or it is unpractical to use a replacement. Let's take an example: some versions of Solaris ship with a non-GNU tar; theirs cannot untar files compressed with gunzip. I need, as almost everyone, to untar .tar.gz files. My choices are: (1) Install GNU tar in /usr/local/bin. One of every two times, Murphy's law helping, some utility will use /usr/bin/tar when I expect it to use /usr/local/bin/tar. (2) Install GNU tar under the name gtar. You have to adapt other people scripts that assumed that GNU tar was available. (3) Install GNU tar over Sun's tar. A system upgrade will "unchange" that. If tar had not been part of the Solaris OS, I could have installed one of my choices, which suits my needs. I know those explanations may sound a bit off topic, but they show why I would prefer a new OS to be minimalist (who said microkernel-based?) so that I can make a system that suits my needs on top of it. Sam