[aclug-L] Re: BeOS? What is it?

[Jonathan Hall <jonhall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Quite a bit of information there--and whether it's directly related to the
discssion at hand or not, thanks for the post.  I know it helped clear up
some questions for me.

Thanks!


On Sat, Jan 22, 2000 at 11:25:15PM -0600, Tom Hull wrote:
> Lots of confusion here, and I may not be much help, given that
> I have no interest in BeOS, NeXT, or anything Apple-related,
> and limited knowledge thereof. But:
> 
>  1) Mach is what's called a "microkernel", which is a different,
>     more modular approach to building kernels than the old standby,
>     the belatedly named "monolithic kernel". For examples, Linux
>     and BSD are monolithic kernels; GNU Hurd is based on a micro-
>     kernel (probably Mach). All of these look pretty much the same
>     to the outside world, but are different inside.
> 
>  2) NeXT is based on Mach. Although Mach has been used to create
>     some genuine Unix-like kernels (e.g., OSF-1 and MkLinux), Mach
>     can just as well support very un-Unix-like kernel interfaces.
>     Ergo, NeXT is not Unix-like simply because it is based on Mach.
>     Nor is NeXT's kernel equivalent to Mach, so it is a bit dis-
>     ingenuous for NeXT to refer to its kernel as Mach.
> 
>  3) I think BeOS is a monolithic kernel, but am not sure. (I've
>     never looked at it.) However, since Be likes to talk about
>     how "modern" the design of BeOS is, it probably has some
>     overarching modularity similar to microkernel designs. (NT
>     is an example of a kernel which likes to think it's micro-
>     kernel based, but isn't really.)
> 
>  4) What makes NeXT and BeOS somewhat Unix-like is that both are
>     Posix.1 compatible. Posix.1 is a standard loosely based on
>     legacy Unix systems: it includes a shell (like bash), shell
>     commands, system calls, and libraries. In a real Unix system,
>     Posix.1 is a subset of the native command line and programming
>     interfaces. However, there are several systems which claim to
>     be Posix.1 compatible, but do so with gerry-rigged libraries
>     that make them second-class interfaces (e.g., NT, VMS). NeXT
>     and BeOS are Posix.1 compatible; that may make them look like
>     Unix, but one needs to dig deeper to get to the real story.
> 
>  5) There are other standards as to what a Unix system is, such
>     as the Unix95 and Unix98 specifications from X/Open. These
>     are effectively a much-extended superset of Posix, largely
>     based on Unix SVR4. The Unix TM is owned by X/Open, which
>     permits use on certified Unix98-conforming systems. Neither
>     Linux nor BSD meet these requirements (partly because some
>     of them are pretty dumb).
> 
>  6) As someone mentioned, NeXTSTEP is just a GUI layer. I don't
>     know how closely it is bound to NeXT's kernel, but it has
>     been ported elsewhere, so it's probably cleanly layered.
> 
>  7) Apple has something called OS X, which uses a lot of BSD
>     code, but I don't know what that means. In any case, it
>     is different from MacOS. I don't know whether MacOS is
>     based on Mach nowadays, but if it is, that would explain
>     why MkLinux is Mach-based.
> 
>  8) BeOS originally ran on Apple hardware, but does not run on
>     more recent Apple hardware. Apple stopped documenting their
>     hardware, and Be was forced to switch to Intel hardware.
>     Despite all the hype, Be is just another closed source,
>     proprietary software company, trying to trap people into
>     a product which is far less useful and less valuable than
>     a free alternative: Linux.
> 
>  9) Be and NeXT are basically cultural satellites of Apple. Why
>     anyone would feel any emotional attachment to a company like
>     Apple mystifies me, but evidently there are people who at
>     long last realize that Apple is only out to screw them who
>     still feel they must embrace something Apple-like; first
>     NeXT, now Be. (There is a similar cloud around VMS, which
>     resulted in many/most VMS customers choosing NT over OSF-1
>     or Linux; now that Microsoft has killed NT-on-Alpha, these
>     same fools are heading back to VMS to avoid Unix.)
> 
> If anyone wants a novel kernel to play with, check out GNU Hurd.
> At least it's free. Or if you're really ambitious, track down
> Plan-9 (Ken Thompson's post-Unix OS). However, many of us could
> still stand to learn more about Linux.
> 
> -- 
> /*
>  *  Tom Hull * thull@xxxxxxxxxxx * http://www.ocston.org/~thull/
>  */

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