AlanBarber.Org
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
DragonFly BSD - Attack of the Code Fork!
It appears that Matthew Dillon one of the FreeBSD kernel hackers has decided to start his own distribution of BSD. I saw the news posted over at BSDForums.Org. You can read the news post here.
Called DragonFly BSD it's Based off of the FreeBSD 4.x code line. According to Matthew the projects goal is:
"to move kernel development along an entirely new path towards SMP, and
to completely rewrite the packaging and distribution system."
I already made a post in the forum but let me reiterate and expand my point here. Let me start by saying Matt is one of the major kernel hackers so he's obviously no slouch. He most definitely has the skills needed to make the project succeed. So at least this isn't just some joe nobody forking off a new distro in some hopes of fame and fortune.
However, I really don't like the idea of another BSD. One of the major reason I've come to prefer BSD over Linux is the fact that the groups are much more focused and there isn't the split of energy and personal going to so many different distributions. It's hard enough to get people interested in BSD with Linux getting all media's attention. I really think forking off a new BSD will not help. What BSD needs is to keep itself solid.
There's the fast and stable FreeBSD for desktops and servers, the clean and portable NetBSD for everything under the sun and the pure and secure OpenBSD for the security conscience. Ok sure you could count BSD/OS and MacOS X too but hey they're not free! The three BSDs cover everything you need. So why waste the time and energy creating a new one?
Obvious reason like politics, egos, laziness...
I'll just close with this. There are some problems with FreeBSD when it comes to things like SMP and packaging. Someone needs to step up and get the things fixed but forking off a new distribution is not how to go about it.
Come on guys don't turn BSD into the same hodgepodge of distros that Linux has become.
on 07/16/2003 at 10:22 PM