Re: [tlug] Re: Alan Cox's remark at Fosdem

[Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com>]

On Tue, 01 Mar 2005 17:02:50 +0900, Stephen J. Turnbull
<stephen@example.com> wrote:

> Uva's (I think it was) original point, that the Linux VM is too
> dangerous to use in a production system, may still stand, at least for
> some admins.  But it's a tradeoff, and Linus has been awfully good at
> making those, and recovering from his own (and tytso's ;-) mistakes.

I do not doubt that Net or FreeBSD are much more stable than Linux. I
ran Net on my only production machine (my gateway router / mailserver)
for awhile, but missed Portage too much and had to go back to Linux.
Once Gentoo/BSD [1] gets closer to complete, I will probably abandon
Linux altogether on my servers.

Linux will rule my desktop for quite a few years to come, it would
seem, as the BSDs just do not have the wealth of software or drivers
available. Though Gentoo/BSD will help to alleviate the former. :)

>     Josh> As in the Bell Labs example, it is often the case that if
>     Josh> you do not take the time to explain something, you do not
>     Josh> truly understand it.
> 
> Irrelevant in a world where the author is almost always too expensive
> to hire for maintenance work.

My point was for the author's benefit. I know that *I* have written
code that I *thought* was elegant and wonderful, and *thought* that I
understood how it worked, but it was not until I tried to write the
comments that I realised that I had made a few mistakes. Then again,
the Bell Labs chaps certainly would not be human enough to make
mistakes... ;)

Speaking of Bell Labs, it is pretty neat that there is a Bell Labs
installation here in Columbus, Ohio. Of course, Murray Hill (New
Jersey) is where UNIX was invented, but I am sure that our local Bell
Labs does / has done some cool stuff, as well.

-Josh

[1] http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/gentoo-alt/bsd/