Re: build OpenBSD on Linux

[Chuck Yerkes <chuck+obsd@2004.snew.com>]

Quoting Peter Hessler (phessler@theapt.org):
> On Thu, 12 Feb 2004 09:12:48 +0200
> "Slabbert, C. (Clinton)" <ClintonSl@nedcor.com> wrote:
> 
>:> Not to be rude, but by experts who know what they are doing.
>:
>:It is interesting you say that, there are several operating systems out
>:there that one would say were definitely not developed by experts - and yet
>:are far more popular than OpenBSD (I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking
>:about).  If someone is an "expert" that means they have, what? Experience?
>:In which case no one would ever develop an OS since no one would ever have
>:had prior experience.
> 
> If you are inferring to Microsoft, you are wrong.  They purchased the first
> versions of their OS from someone else, so they never had to do any
> bootstrapping.

Wow, who'd they get NT/MIPS and NT/Alpha from?


I'd also suggest that there are a lot of really skilled programmers
at MS.  It's just that marketing it between them and the door to freedom.
The company market driven, almost entirely. That means that security
comes in back towards the end of the list of priorities.  And since their
big customers don't appear to hold them accountable, its unlikely to
really change.

Cross compiling isn't that hard to do.  THe compiler wants include
files, libraries and the code, but it needn't be running on the target
environment.  Ever run a compiler on a native PIC system?  Me neither.

...
> And Linux gained popularity because people were afraid of the BSD-ATT
> Lawsuit.

Oh, and it ran on 386 fairly reasonably when it was a bitch
to get a BSD running on it.  BSDi was solid by 1994, but Linux
long predated that. Hell, it ran on SPARC pretty well by '95.