Re: [tlug] BSDs

[Uva Coder <uvacoder@example.com>]

On Wed, Sep 17, 2003 at 08:29:00AM +0900, Blomberg David wrote:
> question as I cannot find anywhere else is what does this do to the BSD
> community.  

I think both events had a small impact to the bsd community. Failings
in BSDi and OpenBSD are indicators to the acceptance of BSD in
certain sectors (e.g. U.S. Government/Military R&D, and corporate 
business). 

> Which ones will live on and which ones will not?  
> has anyone any ideas about this?

Well, eventually *BSD as we know it will all go away. There are 
limits to the UNIX (BSD) paradigm. Granted, they will not be gone 
anytime in the near future. But lately I've been seeing more and 
more where UNIX is showing its age. 

IMHO, attempting to retrofit UNIX with distributed network capabilities 
is a bad idea. Attempting to retrofit UNIX with a modern security 
model(s) is a bad idea. All this retrofitting leads to a complexity that 
is beyond sound reasoning, and a system that is difficult for end users 
to use or to costly for sysadmin to administer. (e.g. Trusted Solaris or 
Trusted HP-UX, anyone?) Complexity has become an issue for not choosing 
UNIX. There are other solutions that are easier to implement and 
designed with security in mind (e.g. inferno, or plan9).

I believe there will a big change in computing, whether the change
is in hardware or software (the OS) or both is yet to be seen. 
Let me give you an example dealing with trusted grid environments. 
For instance, as a secruity precaution, once a computer has completed 
a classified computation that machine must reboot to clear memory. 
(A modern day method for clearing RAM content). Obviously this method 
does not fall in line with convential UNIX wisdom on system behavior, 
but now it is a standard operating procedure in a few work environments. 
Should we extend UNIX to fit everything, or just start anew?

I believe the movement will be to start anew and away from BSD (Linux
included). Your question now might be when?

-- Uva